Outside/In: The papyrus and the volcano

While digging a well in 1750, a group of workers accidentally discovered an ancient Roman villa containing over 1,000 papyrus scrolls. This was a stunning discovery: the only library from antiquity ever found in situ. But the scrolls were blackened and fragile, turned almost to ash by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Over the centuries, scholars’ many attempts to unroll the fragile scrolls have mostly been catastrophic. But now, scientists are trying again, this time with the help of Silicon Valley and some of the most advanced technology we’ve got: particle accelerators, CT scanners, and AI.

After 2,000 years, will we finally be able to read the scrolls?

Featuring Federica Nicolardi, Brent Seales, Youssef Nader, Arefeh Sherafati, and Julian Schilliger. 

LINKS

The Vesuvius Challenge is not over. Find out more here.

Check out more pictures of the scrolls and the process of “virtual unwrapping” at the Digital Restoration Initiative website, or watch Brent Seales lecture about his technique.

A video illustrating the process of “virtual unwrapping” with a jelly roll.

A 60 Minutes story from 2018 focusing on the conflict between Seales and scholars Vito Mocella and Graziano Ranocchia.

A replica of the marble floor discovered by Italian farmworkers in 1750.

Contestant Casey Handmer’s blog post detailing his identification of the “crackle signal” to the ink.

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The scroll that was read during the 2023 Vesuvius Challenge.

Courtesy of EduceLab, University of Kentucky.

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The catastrophic results of attempting to physically unroll a carbonized scroll.

Courtesy of the Vesuvius Challenge

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Brent Seales (left) scanning a scroll using a particle accelerator in Oxford, England.

Courtesy of the Vesuvius Challenge

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One of the Herculaneum papyri. Courtesy of the Vesuvius Challenge.

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An interior image of the scroll. The internal spiral is visible.

Courtesy of the Vesuvius Challenge

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This image “displays the AI predictions from our model in green. Below the predictions are the underlying crackle patterns near the first letters found ‘πορφυρας,’ which is translated by papyrologists as ‘purple,’” explained Arefeh Sherafati, Vesuvius Challenge contestant on a Grand Prize runner-up team.

Courtesy Arefeh Sherafati and the Vesuvius Challenge

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The grand prize-winning submission from Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger.

Courtesy of the Vesuvius Challenge

CREDITS

Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi

Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis

Edited by Taylor Quimby

Our team also includes Felix Poon.

NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie.

Music in this episode came from Silver Maple, Xavy Rusan, bomull, Young Community, Bio Unit, Konrad OldMoney, Chris Zabriski, and Blue Dot Sessions.

Volcano recordings came from daveincamas on Freesound.org, License Attribution 4.0 and felix.blume on freesound.org, Creative Commons 0.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.