AI Helps Read Papyrus Scroll Burnt to Crisp During Vesuvius Eruption

Researchers have virtually unwrapped and read an ancient papyrus scroll, preserved for nearly 2,000 years but carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, using artificial intelligence. The AI successfully deciphered 20 columns of previously hidden text, spanning over a meter of the charred material, without needing to physically unroll the fragile document.

The scroll, identified as PHerc 1667, contains philosophical discussions on ethics, art, and human behavior. Its age, dating to the second or late-third century BC, makes it one of the oldest in a collection recovered from a Roman villa in Herculaneum. The scroll was found in a library buried by the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79.

Past attempts to handle the scroll, which had already broken in half, led to the disintegration of its outer layers. The surviving portion is now only 8cm tall and 2cm wide. Dr. Federica Nicolardi, a papyrologist at the University of Naples Federico II, highlighted the significance of the achievement, stating, "We don’t have the full scroll, but the surviving object was unwrapped and that’s a very important result because it shows that we are able to unwrap these objects completely."

This success is a key development in the Vesuvius Challenge, a global contest launched in 2023 to read carbonized scrolls. The project has awarded prizes to teams utilizing AI and other software to virtually unwrap scrolls and read text from high-resolution X-ray images. Analysis suggests PHerc 1667 might be a stoic treatise, possibly authored by the Greek philosopher Chrysippus, a prominent figure in Stoicism.

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We don’t have the full scroll, but the surviving object was unwrapped and that’s a very important result because it shows that we are able to unwrap these objects completely.