Category: blog

Written by: Julia Donovan

Edited by: Madison Fitzgerald, Kapil Shrawankar, Nick Janne, Ryan Schildcrout

When Mount Vesuvius erupted, it simultaneously destroyed the entire civilization of Pompeii whilst preserving the city under volcanic ash. Among the items excavated in 1752 was a collection of 1,800 scrolls from the nearby city of Herculaneum. The Herculaneum Scrolls are the only known large-scale library in classic antiquity. Given the small number of classical works that have survived beyond the period–Sophocles wrote 120 plays but only 7 remain–there is hope that these scrolls contain unknown works. Some researchers argue that only the best works from antiquity had a chance at survival, meaning the 7 plays of Sophocles that exist were his most popular ones. Evidence for this theory includes the fact that the Iliad was the most copied poem during antiquity, with many private manuscripts of the poem surviving to this day. Other experts argue that the survival of classical works is purely due to chance, supported by the fact that the poems by Catullus survive in only one manuscript. Similarly, the works of Sappho, which were highly regarded in her own times, exist only in fragments. Decoding the contents of these surviving scrolls could extensively add to the body of classical works. However, previous attempts to open the scrolls have led to their destruction. Due to the volcanizing of the scrolls, the brittleness of the papyrus causes breakage and the ink often fades when exposed to air. As a result, approximately 1,000 of the Herculaneum Scrolls remain intact. Researchers began to wonder if there was a way to see inside the scrolls without opening them, and if artificial intelligence (AI) could then help decode what was written. In 2023, AI aided in the discovery of the first word from a Herculaneum scroll. The path to this monumental step built on the AI research of many different labs.