AI helps recover texts from Vesuvius-buried scrolls

Scientists have uncovered new material from ancient scrolls buried by Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago, using AI-enabled digital unwrapping to read fragile papyrus that cannot be physically opened. The scrolls were buried in Herculaneum during the eruption in A.D. 79 and have challenged researchers since their rediscovery three centuries ago.

Teams from the University of Kentucky and Naples revealed texts from authors previously lost to history, including philosophical discussions of ethics, the arts, human behavior and theology. One passage appears to caution against excessive impulse, while another centers on phronesis, the ancient Greek idea of practical wisdom.

Earlier efforts to open the scrolls were slow and risky. In the 18th century, Father Antonio Piaggio built a device to unroll carbonized papyrus, taking four years to unravel the first scroll and later unfolding 500 more, while another 600 remained too fragile to open mechanically.

A major breakthrough came in 2023, when three students used machine-learning algorithms to extract Greek letters from a virtually unwrapped scroll and won a $1 million prize. Researchers have read only 10% of the scrolls so far, and the University of Kentucky has announced a new $1 million prize for deciphering a complete scroll by June next year.