AI reads text from ancient Herculaneum scroll for the first time

2 min read Original article ↗

Machine-learning technique reveals Greek words in CT scans of rolled-up papyrus.

By

  1. Jo Marchant

    1. Jo Marchant is a freelance science writer based in London.

A 21-year-old computer-science student has won a global contest to read the first text inside a carbonized scroll from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which had been unreadable since a volcanic eruption in ad 79 — the same one that buried nearby Pompeii. The breakthrough could open up hundreds of texts from the only intact library to survive from Greco-Roman antiquity.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03212-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 13 October 2023: An earlier version of this article did not include the full name and affiliation of Brent Seales.

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