When fire and ash sealed away voices from the past, hope seemed all but extinguished. But now, thanks to a remarkable union of computing and classical scholarship, a text lost to the Vesuvius eruption is speaking again.
In a dramatic moment for human curiosity, researchers have used artificial intelligence and advanced imaging to peer inside a 2,000-year-old scroll—virtually unwrapping ancient wisdom long buried in smoke.
It feels like stumbling upon a time capsule, and we’re the first readers after two millennia.
From Volcanic Ruin To Virtual Renaissance
In AD 79, as Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Herculaneum under torrents of ash and heat, centuries of human thought were smothered. Among the ruins, an extraordinary library lay hidden in the Villa of the Papyri—a collection of more than 1,800 scrolls, now carbonized and fused by volcanic fury.
Over the centuries, scholars attempted to pry open these fragile scrolls by mechanical or chemical means—techniques that often destroyed them. Careless slicing, corrosive soaking, or forced unrolling reduced some to dust.
But thanks to modern science, the project of reading them has entered a new era: one where X-ray imaging, 3D modeling, and AI allow virtual unwrapping, safely unspooling the text in digital space while the physical scroll remains untouched.
At the heart of this transformation is the Vesuvius Challenge—a contest launched to encourage breakthroughs in reading these charred scrolls using computational methods.
The Breakthrough: Unveiling Hidden Text
In early 2025, researchers announced a watershed moment. For the first time, they produced the first internal image of one of the scrolls housed at Oxford’s Bodleian Library—scroll PHerc. 172—revealing recoverable text that had remained invisible for nearly 2,000 years.
They used the Diamond Light Source synchrotron near Oxford to scan the scroll with ultra-high-resolution X-rays, generating a 3D model of its internal structure. Then, AI algorithms parsed the layers, distinguishing ink from papyrus in the volumetric data and reconstructing the writing.
“It contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll,” remarked Brent Seales, a computer scientist and co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge. One of the few words already legible: the ancient Greek for “disgust.” It may seem small, but in these fragile scrolls, even a single word is a revelation.
Another team’s efforts bore fruit as well: in 2024, a trio of students—Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger—won the $700,000 grand prize from the Vesuvius Challenge by deciphering over 2,000 Greek letters across four passages, achieving an estimated 85 % accuracy in some regions.
Those decoded lines touched on themes of pleasure, music, and the senses—evoking a kind of philosophical reflection that resonates deep in our human story.
Why This Matters (Especially The 4th Point)
- Rescuing Lost Voices: This project restores long-silenced writers, bringing us closer to antiquity not as a distant monument but as a living, breathing conversation. The charred scrolls contain original treatises, often by Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, whose works were suppressed, neglected, or lost.
- A New Model Of Non-Destructive Scholarship: The blend of synchrotron imaging, volumetric scanning, and AI opens a path to explore fragile manuscripts without risking further damage. It’s a paradigm shift away from invasive unwrapping toward digital archaeology.
- Inspiration Across Disciplines: Teams span computer scientists, classical scholars, volumetric imaging experts, and contest participants around the world. This cross-pollination shows us how humanities and technology can collaborate to bring wonder back to life.
- The Deeper Philosophical Insights: Beyond method, the content is compelling. The scrolls don’t just offer fragments of text—they whisper about how ancient thinkers confronted life’s pleasures, judgments, and sensory experiences.
- The Heart Of What Was Revealed: One fragment from the recovered text reflects on human perception of value, suggesting that rarity does not necessarily make something more enjoyable than what is plentiful. It emphasizes the idea that true pleasure is not determined by scarcity but by genuine appreciation and balance.
- That Line Reaches Across Time to Challenge Us: Scarcity does not necessarily increase joy. Even in antiquity, wisdom was wrestling with the human condition we face today—about moderation, fulfillment, and how we value what we have. These scrolls aren’t relics; they’re companions to our lifelong conversations about meaning.
- Through the Charred Ash, a Voice Stirs: A thinker still pondering senses, pleasure, and the ethics of living well. That is the 4th point we dare not miss.
Challenges Ahead And Hopeful Horizons
This achievement is just the opening chapter of a long journey.
- Limits Of Current Scans And AI: Right now, only a fraction of the scrolls have high enough resolution scans, and AI isn’t yet perfect in separating ink from papyrus. Researchers must improve contrast, imaging technology, and machine-learning models to decode more text.
- Scaling To More Scrolls: The Bodleian scroll is one success—but hundreds more, held in Naples and elsewhere, await decoding. Physically moving scrolls carries risk; developing local scanning capabilities could democratize access.
- Interpreting Fragmented Text: Even when text is revealed, reconstructing context—restoring missing words, identifying authorship, understanding references—requires classical scholarship, philology, and patience. Some works may remain too fragmented to reconstruct cleanly.
- Ethical And Access Considerations: Who gets access to the digital reconstructions? How is scholarly credit shared between technologists and classicists? The project must navigate openness, attribution, and collaborative ethics.
Yet the vision is grand. The techniques developed now could be applied to other burnt, damaged, or sealed manuscripts—something long considered impossible.
Imagine scrolls from Petra, the Judean desert, or other ancient sites returning to light. The “invisible library” locked by centuries may yet sing again.
A Spark Across Time
When I think of that charred scroll, I picture a scholar lighting a lamp in a dim room, holding papyrus in trembling hands and scratching letters by candlelight. The world around them silent. Now, two thousand years later, AI becomes our lamp—illumining letters once lost and bridging us to that ancient stillness.
Richard Ovenden, one of the principal researchers, described the discovery as a historic breakthrough, highlighting that the advancements in imaging and artificial intelligence have finally made it possible to examine scrolls that have remained unread for nearly two millennia.
Yes, it is incredible. From the ashes, a human voice returns. The steam, the dust, the doom of a volcano retreat; out of that darkness we hear a whisper: eat, listen, savor, reason.
We live at a time when technology can restore not just information, but connection—with minds long gone, but never forgotten.
Sources:
The Guardian
Bodleian
Daily Mail
