A team of researchers has successfully used artificial intelligence to virtually unwrap and read a 2,000-year-old papyrus scroll that was damaged during the Mount Vesuvius eruption. The scroll, named PHerc 1667, is one of the oldest in a collection of hundreds recovered from the library of a luxury Roman villa in Herculaneum. By applying machine-learning algorithms to high-resolution X-ray images, the team was able to uncover 20 columns of previously hidden text, covering over a meter of charred papyrus. The text discusses stoic philosophy, including concepts such as hormē, or impulse, and phronēsis, or practical wisdom. The achievement is part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a global contest launched in 2023 to read the carbonized scrolls using AI and other software. The project has handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes to teams that have developed techniques for virtually unwrapping and reading the scrolls. According to Dr. Federica Nicolardi, a papyrologist at the University of Naples Federico II, the newly read text provides valuable insights into stoic philosophy and its authors. The team's approach involved training machine-learning algorithms to spot subtle differences in the papyrus fibers in X-ray images, allowing them to read the ink on the hidden layers of the scrolls. The success of this project has shifted the focus from developing techniques to read the scrolls to understanding the scholarly significance of the texts. As Prof. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, noted, the challenge has now become one of interpreting the meaning of the uncovered texts, a task that promises to reveal new secrets about ancient philosophy and culture.

Source: The Guardian