New thinking reveals the philosophy hidden in the scrolls buried by Mount Vesuvius – National
The reading of ancient scrolls, submerged by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius more than 1,900 years ago, revealed the philosophical speculations of prominent thinkers of the time, including warnings against extreme ideas and meditation on human nature, thanks to advances in X-ray and intelligence imaging technology.
Researchers used AI tools to get the first complete view of the sealed scrolls burned by the explosion that buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD.
The breakthrough, which came as part of the Vesuvius Challenge – a global competition that uses AI to uncover carbonized scrolls – marks a major step towards deciphering hundreds of ancient manuscripts that would otherwise have crumbled if caught.
The National Library of Naples has the Herculaneum Papyri, a library of papyrus released by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the first century AD. The papyrus contains many Greek philosophical texts. Many of these scrolls are too fragile to be opened, and researchers have turned to digital imaging techniques to reveal the papyrus’ contents.
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Among the newly read materials were 70 columns of text from On Vices, Book 1which is said to have been written by the Epicurus philosopher and poet Philodemus, and one of his books, On Gods, Book 8over nearly 1.5 meters of text across 20 columns found in a 200-300 BC scroll – the oldest Herculaneum scroll to be uncovered – examining ethics, art and human behavior.
“We will investigate something, but we will not understand it, if we somehow depart from ourselves and our own nature,” one of the unwrapped scrolls reads in part, according to what was published by this challenge.
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Seeking to speed up the development of the technology, the Vesuvius Challenge, launched in 2023 by a small group of technology developers and investors, said it would make all its existing data, codes and model volumes available online and offer a US$1-million prize to the first person or team to fully study it.
“A year ago it would have been crazy for any of us to believe that there would be a complete document that could be read completely without attacking hundreds of columns of text,” said Brent Seales, a professor of computer science at the University of Kentucky and one of the founders of the project, told a conference broadcast in Naples, Reuters reported.
A scientist shows boxes containing Herculaneum papyrus remains on display at the Institut de France in Paris on September 26, 2019.
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“Today we have shown that it is possible,” he continued. “I believe we will read all the volumes in the collection.”
Federica Nilardi, a leading papyrologist with the Vesuvius Challenge, said that technological advances have transformed her field of study by allowing hundreds of preserved but unsealed scrolls to be read in their entirety.
“Even with the most effective methods available … to physically unwrap the scrolls and read them, someone had to damage them. But by literally unwrapping them, we no longer have to choose between preserving and reading these rare works of art. We can do both,” he said.
Nicolardi said progress was rapid, as researchers in the past 24 hours opened the full length of one scroll, revealing about 140 columns of invisible text. Until recently, they were only uncovering about 10 percent of the columns, he explained.
“Last night, in front of Mount Vesuvius, something, or should I say everything, changed,” he concluded.
– via files from Reuters
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