AI unlocks secrets of Vesuvius's charred scrolls

A team associated with the University of Kentucky has deciphered an entire Herculaneum scroll for the first time without ever unraveling it, according to CBS News and Artnet News. The breakthrough, announced this week as part of the Vesuvius Challenge, used artificial intelligence to read the papyrus through its charred exterior—a milestone that opens centuries-old texts to modern scrutiny without risking their fragile carbonized surface. The scroll surfaced when the Villa of the Papyri emerged near Herculaneum, ten miles from Pompeii, in the 1750s.

The texts recovered reveal philosophical takes on ethics, the arts, human behavior and theology, NBC News reported. Researchers have recovered content previously lost to history, expanding understanding of Roman intellectual life in the decades before the eruption of 79 A.D. The non-invasive method represents a dramatic shift from traditional approaches: as Gizmodo noted, "just a year ago it would have been crazy for any of us to believe that there would be a complete scroll read completely non-invasively."