Let's read the 2,000 year-old Herculaneum scroll burned by Vesuvius...but saved by technology
- Andy McIlvain
- 6 days ago
- 1 min read
Video from RTS Institute for the Study of Ancient Texts
Let's read the 2,000 year-old Herculaneum scroll burned by Vesuvius...but saved by technology
"In this video, Greg Lanier walks through the background of the efforts to decipher the scrolls that were burned but preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. In June 2026, a team successfully applied micro computed tomography and a host of machine-learning-aided techniques to digitally unroll and decipher this scroll. It is likely a Stoic composition from the 2nd century BC, and several columns within the scroll are readable now after over two millennia!
Find out more at https://scrollprize.org.
00:20 - Introduction
04:00 - Recent news about P. Herc. 1667
06:05 - Transcribing and reading the Greek of Column 17
13:58 - Transcribing and reading the Greek of Column 20
from the video introduction
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