When Pompeii and Herculaneum sank under ash and lava, a library was also hit. Now, for the first time, artificial intelligence is making parts of the charred scrolls readable again. Technology could profoundly change the view of antiquity.
In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and lava. The same fate befell a villa that had once belonged to Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. Archaeologists discovered more than a thousand charred, cylindrical objects there in the 18th century, which soon turned out to be papyrus rolls from a private library. But the joy over the sensational find was quickly followed by disillusionment: If you tried to open the rolls, they turned to ash. Although a few text fragments were recovered, many of the scrolls suffered irreparable damage. The remaining pieces therefore disappeared in the magazines for more than 200 years – until now. Three researchers have managed to decipher sections of an ancient text using artificial intelligence. The new technology could significantly advance historical research.