First passages of Herculaneum scroll are DECIPHERED by AI: Students use program to read more than 2,000 words on charred papyrus buried by Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD

The famous Herculaneum Scroll, charred papyrus found buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, has been deciphered by artificial intelligence.

This feat was achieved by students in a competition where algorithms were trained on scans of the artefact, which would otherwise be destroyed if unraveled by human hands.

The winning team read more than 2,000 ‘never seen before’ texts, discussing sources of pleasure such as music, the taste of capers and the color purple.

The three students from Egypt, Switzerland and the US will share a grand prize of $700,000 for finding hundreds of words in more than fifteen columns of text, equivalent to about five percent of an entire scroll.

The Vesuvius Challenge was launched in March 2023 by Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, and backers from Silicon Valley.

At the time, Seales released thousands of 3D images of two rolled scrolls, as well as an AI program trained to read letters in the marks left by ink.

Soon after, Luke Farritor of Nebraska and Youssef Nader of Egypt independently revealed the same word hidden in the heart of the sealed manuscript – ‘πορφύραc’ – meaning purple dye or purple clothing.

And the pair shared a $40,000 prize.

However, Monday’s announcement revealed the top prize winners, which also included Nadaer and Farritor, as well as Julian Schilliger, a Swiss robotics student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed the settlements of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Torre Annunziata and Stabiae, killing thousands of people.

hundreds of texts from the Herculaneum library were also buried and charred by the smoking ash and gases.

This feat was achieved by students in a competition where algorithms were trained based on scans of the artifact (photo)

The charred scrolls resurfaced in 1752 in a villa near the Bay of Naples once thought to belong to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, but their contents have remained a mystery because scientists found them too fragile to unfold .

The AI ​​program was trained to read the ink on both the surface and hidden layers of the unopened rollers.

The general subject of the text is pleasure, which, properly understood, is the highest good in Epicurean philosophy.

The author of the ancient Greek text is believed to be Philodemus, a philosopher who lived in the villa where the scroll was found.

In two excerpts from two consecutive columns of the scroll, the author shared his concerns about whether and how the availability of goods, such as food, can affect the pleasure they provide.

The ancient Greek text reads: ‘AEven when it comes to food, we don’t immediately believe that things that are scarce are absolutely more pleasant than things that are plentiful.’

“But is it easier for us to do naturally without things that abound? ‘Such questions will often come up.’

In the closing section of the text, our author takes leave of his opponents, who “have nothing to say about pleasure, either in general or in particular, if it is a matter of definition.”

The scroll concluded: ‘… for we refrain (not) from questioning some things, but from understanding/remembering others. And may it be natural for us to say true things, as they often seemed obvious.”

“It’s been an incredibly rewarding journey,” Youssef said. ‘It was the adrenaline rush that kept us going. It was insane. It meant working twenty hours a day. I didn’t know when one day ended and the next began.’

“It’s probably Philodemus,” Fowler said of the author.

‘The style is very spicy, typical of him, and the subject is right up his alley.

‘I think he’s asking the question: what is the source of pleasure in a mixture of things? Is it the dominant element, is it the scarce element, or is it the mix itself?’

In the closing section of the text, the author said goodbye to his opponents, who “have nothing to say about pleasure, either in general or in particular, if it is a matter of definition.”

The scroll ended with: ‘… for we refrain (not) from questioning some things, but from understanding/remembering others. And may it be natural for us to say true things, as they often seemed obvious!’

Papyrologist and prize judge Richard Janko of the University of Michigan said: ‘Is the follower of the author Epicurus, the philosopher and poet Philodemus, the teacher of Virgil? It seems very likely.

Pictured is the result of an attempt to unroll one of the many scrolls found at the excavation site

‘Does he write about the effect of music on the listener, and does he compare this to other pleasures such as that of eating and drinking? Very likely.

‘Does this text come from his four-part treatise on music, of which we know Book 4? Quite possibly: the title should be available to read soon.

‘So many questions! But improvements in ink identification, which are to be expected, will answer most of these problems soon. I can hardly wait.’

The V

The challenge continues this year with the goal of reading 85% of the scroll and laying the foundation for reading all scrolls already unearthed.