Unraveling Ancient Words

Imagine being locked in a house for 2000 years! That's what happened to the Herculaneum scrolls. Mount Vesuvius eruption of seven twenty-nine A. D. didn't just bury this ancient Roman town, it also caused bad damage to scrolls of an entire villa. It's been a stressful challenge to open these scrolls made of papyrus after it was burnt to crisp. For example, using vegetable gas or papyrus juice this could even ruin the item too. Eventually it was released the scroll could be decoded using new technology including X-ray and CT scans which would distinguish the ink from the paper without damaging it more. That was only able to read 5% of another scroll by using AI techniques. The scroll in Oxford's University library, is one of many up for unlocking in the Vesuvius Challenge competition. The team know that there are about five or more layers in the scroll and could be accessed. Perhaps, using a more powerful x-ray machine could make the ink more visible to read. Herculaneum Library A had made the blackened scroll more readable and to decipher.

The real excitement is to understand the scrolls. It is assumed this would contain ancient Greek text since most of the scrolls found were philosophers. Its incredible to connect with the past to people who wrote the words for the past, to those who collected them, and even people who placed the scrolls carefully on the shelves. This human aspect that has been shared and kept for centuries makes things more valuable.

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