Artificial intelligence has enabled researchers to virtually unwrap and read a carbonized ancient scroll that was buried and burnt during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. The scroll, known as PHerc 1667, was recovered from the library of a luxury Roman villa in Herculaneum, near Naples. The AI-assisted reading has revealed 20 columns of previously hidden text covering more than a metre of charred papyrus, discussing stoic philosophy on ethics, art, and human behaviour. The scroll dates to the second or late-third century BC, making it one of the oldest in the Herculaneum collection.
Virtual Unwrapping of the Herculaneum Scroll
Without physically unrolling the fragile scroll, researchers used machine-learning algorithms trained to detect subtle differences in papyrus fibres from high-resolution X-ray images. This technique, pioneered by Professor Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky, allowed the team to read the ink on hidden layers. The scroll had been broken in half and damaged by past handling, with outer layers flaking off. What remains is only 8cm tall and 2cm wide, half the original size.
Contents and Authorship
Dr Federica Nicolardi, a papyrologist at the University of Naples Federico II, stated: "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." Analysis suggests the text is a stoic treatise, possibly authored by the Greek philosopher Chrysippus, the third head of the stoic school. The text refers to his nephew and pupil, Aristocreon. Nicolardi noted: "At first, we were saying this could be an Epicurean talking about stoic doctrine. But then I stopped and said, you know, if this was found outside of Herculaneum, we would categorise it as a stoic work."
Philosophical Insights
The newly read text discusses the stoic concept of hormē, or impulse, warning that failing to regulate behaviour with reason can lead to harmful passions and diversion from one's goals. Another concept is phronēsis, or "practical wisdom," considered the highest virtue in stoic philosophy. One passage reads: "We will inquire into something, but we will not grasp it, if in some way we depart from ourselves and from our own nature." This line suggests that reason and the innate human inclination to do good are crucial for furthering knowledge.
The Vesuvius Challenge
The achievement will be announced at a conference in Naples on Thursday and is the latest from the Vesuvius Challenge, a global contest launched in 2023 to read carbonized scrolls. Backed by Silicon Valley donors, the challenge has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes to teams using AI and software to virtually unwrap and read texts from X-ray images. Another virtually unwrapped scroll contained the words "Philodemus, On Gods, Book 8," revealing for the first time that On Gods was a multi-book work. "These unopened Herculaneum Scrolls look like dead books, but they're not," said Nicolardi. "They're starting to speak again."
Future Directions
Professor Seales said the challenge has shifted from developing techniques to scholarly interpretation: "People now know that this can be done and now we're exploring what [the texts] actually mean. For me that's the World Cup. I just won the World Cup: that's my victory." The work demonstrates the potential of AI to unlock ancient texts that were previously considered unreadable.
