Inside of Herculaneum scroll seen for the first time in almost 2,000 years

Exterior of scroll PHerc. 172. Credit: Vesuvius Challenge.

Since the scroll was scanned at the Diamond Light Source in Harwell in July 2024, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, the Vesuvius Challenge team have worked with AI to piece together the images and enhance the clarity of the text. Researchers are further refining the image using a new segmentation approach, in the hopes that it will improve the coherence and clarity of the lines of text currently visible, and perhaps reach the end of the papyrus (the innermost part of the carbonised scroll) where the colophon with the title of the work may be preserved.

The Oxford scroll, donated in the early 19th century by Ferdinand IV, King of Napes and Sicily, has proven unique among Herculaneum materials due to the chemical composition of its ink, which appears more clearly in X-ray scans. Researchers hypothesise that the ink may contain a denser contaminant, such as lead, but further testing will be needed to identify the precise 'recipe' that has made the ink so much more legible than other scrolls which have been part of the Vesuvius Challenge.

This new material, in addition to its intrinsic interest, could significantly reshape our understanding of contemporary or near-contemporary literature, which with figures like Virgil and Horace is heavily engaged with philosophy in general and Epicureanism in particular.

Professor Llewelyn Morgan, Chair of the Classics Faculty Board 

The machine learning employed for this project focuses solely on the detection of the presence of ink - the models do not have any understanding of language and cannot recognise characters. As a result, the next phase of this endeavour - the transcription and translation of the text - is entrusted to the expertise of human scholars. The AI operates much like 18th-century copyists, who were employed to meticulously replicate what they saw in the scrolls without comprehending the text. This lack of understanding was, and remains, an advantage, as it ensures no speculative adjustments or interpretations are introduced, preserving the integrity of the original content.

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries, remarked, 'It's an incredible moment in history as librarians, computer scientists and scholars of the classical period are collaborating to see the unseen. The astonishing strides forward made with imaging, and AI are enabling us to look inside scrolls that have not been read for almost 2,000 years. This project is a perfect example of libraries, humanities and computer science complementing each other’s expertise to understand our common past.'

The Vesuvius Challenge, the global initiative that was launched in 2023 to discover the contents of the Herculaneum Scrolls without any physical intervention to the scrolls themselves, continues to encourage contributions from researchers across the world. Created by Dr Brent Seales, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross, the initiative has rewarded teams across the world for their discoveries, including first ink detection and various open-source software contributions.

Dr Brent Seales, Co-Founder of Vesuvius Challenge and Principal Investigator of EduceLab said, 'We are thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll from the Bodleian Libraries and are grateful to our partners for their support and collaboration. This scroll contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll. Despite these exciting results, much work remains to improve our software methods so that we can read the entirety of this and the other Herculaneum scrolls.'

The Vesuvius Challenge welcomes contributors of all backgrounds to join their online community and assist in understanding the contents of the Herculaneum scrolls. Visit their website to find out more.