On March 27, 18 ancient scrolls from the Vittorio Emanuele III National Library in Naples were transported to the Diamond Light Source for scanning. This initiative aims to read the Herculaneum scrolls, which were carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Following the success of an AI-assisted deciphering of text last year, researchers are optimistic that the current scans will reveal more legible content. Brent Seales has dedicated 20 years to this research and reports promising signs from the first scans, indicating visible ink on some scrolls, potentially making the texts easier to read.
It's like a dream to have reached this point, says Brent Seales... It seems so impossible and yet we're doing it.
The first look at the newest scans reveals that at least five of the scrolls show what look like clear signs of visible ink.
More than 1,800 carbonized papyri were discovered in the eighteenth century... they offer an unprecedented cache of ancient knowledge.
This mission is part of a huge scaling up of efforts to decipher the 'Herculaneum scrolls', after text inside one of them was successfully deciphered using AI last year.
#herculaneum-scrolls #ancient-manuscripts #artificial-intelligence #archaeology #particle-accelerator
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