AI does some cool things too. This is WAY cool! Apparently, AI is bringing back scrolls buried by Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago!
As reported by National Geographic (Vesuvius buried these scrolls. AI is bringing them back., written by Sam Kean and available here), 2,000-year-old papyrus scrolls from one of antiquity’s only surviving libraries that were once thought to be unreadable are finally spilling their secrets.
The A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that ravaged Pompeii also buried the nearby town of Herculaneum, entombing its celebrated library at the Villa of the Papyri under 60 feet of ash and rock. The good news? Hundreds of papyrus scrolls survived the inferno thanks to that heavy blanket of volcanic debris. The bad news? They baked into brittle, misshapen lumps that were preserved yet so fragile that archaeologists feared touching them. Yet, some did over the years in attempts to read the scrolls but instead damaged them beyond repair.
You’ll have to check out the story to see examples of the scrolls. They look like burned cigars.
Now, nearly 2,000 years after the Vesuvian tragedy, the scrolls are giving up their secrets at last. Using particle accelerators and artificial intelligence, researchers finally have the ability to virtually “unwrap” the Herculaneum scrolls and read their contents.
Led by papyrologist Federica Nicolardi and a team of other historians, scientists, and AI experts like Giorgio Angelotti, the discoveries are being unveiled in National Geographic. They have identified one scroll as potentially among the oldest in Roman history, while another could provide great new insights into Greek theology and the legendary gods of Olympus.
These technological advances have recently moved beyond isolated words and short passages to complete scrolls. Researchers have now recovered substantial portions of philosophical texts, including works discussing ethics, human behavior, and Stoic philosophy. Some writings are believed to have been authored by, or associated with, prominent ancient philosophers such as Chrysippus and Philodemus. These discoveries are expanding scholars’ understanding of ancient philosophy and may reveal previously unknown works that have been lost for nearly two millennia.
Pretty cool, huh?
Even better is that more scrolls could be buried at Herculaneum, which has never been fully excavated. Thanks in part to AI, we may finally be able to read them if we do!
So, what do you think? Are you surprised that AI is bringing back scrolls buried by the Mount Vesuvius eruption? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
Hat tip to Stephen Abram for the heads up on this story (via Stephen’s Lighthouse).
Image created using DALL-E 3, using the term “robots in a Roman town looking up at a volcano at the edge of town”.
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