Burnt Herculaneum papyri read with AI: lost texts of Philodemus come to light

Scrolls that had been unreadable for close to two thousand years have been opened — without being opened at all. Advanced X-ray imaging and artificial intelligence have made it possible to "unwrap" digitally the papyri carbonised by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.

The Vesuvius Challenge#

Launched in 2023, the international project set out to develop AI tools capable of reading the hundreds of carbonised scrolls found in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. So fragile are the scrolls that attempts to open them physically usually destroyed them beyond repair.

What was found?#

Among the deciphered texts are around 70 columns from Book 1 of On Vices by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, and passages from Book 8 of On Gods. Some 1.5 metres of text was also recovered from another scroll dated to between 300 and 200 BC — the oldest Herculaneum manuscript read to date, containing reflections on ethics, art and human nature.

"A turning point"#

Brent Seales, professor of computer science at the University of Kentucky and one of the project's founders, describes the development as a turning point and says the team believes every scroll in the collection can be read. Federica Nicolardi, the lead papyrologist, says virtual unwrapping has transformed the field: manuscripts can now be preserved and studied at the same time.

The project shares its imaging data, software and models as open source; a prize of one million dollars was offered to the first team to read a complete scroll. Hundreds of unopened scrolls are still waiting their turn.