New 3-D Technology To Read Messages & Scrolls From Vesuvius Eruption in 79 A.D.

Computer scientists are working on a way to read the unreadable - and we're not talking about silicon Zen masters, or building a machine to deal with Twilight novels the way we have ones for toxic waste.  A stockpile of papyrus scrolls pose the ultimate Roman Empire tease: they're an irreplaceable treasure trove of antiquity, but they're so fragile even unrolling will destroy them.  Modern technology might now open this ancient door.

On Aug. 24, 79 A.D., Italy's Mount Vesuvius exploded, burying the Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii under tons of super-heated ash, rock and debris in one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history. Yet somehow, hundreds of papyrus scrolls survived in a villa at Herculaneum thought to have been owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law.

The scrolls contained ancient philosophical and learned writings. But they were so badly damaged -- literally turned to carbon by the volcanic heat -- that they crumbled when scholars first tried to open them centuries later. The remaining scrolls, stored away in Italy and France, haven't been read (or unrolled) since 79 AD.

Professor Seales and colleagues of the University of Kentucky are combining of computerized axial tomography (CT) and modeling to unwrap what's inside.  They don't even have to touch them, which is good, because they're not allowed to.  The conservators charged with preserving over a thousand of these self-destructing messages (which predate Mission Impossible by almost two thousand years) have granted the team access to two for a test run.

The scan non-invasively probes the insides of the scrolls, building up pictures of thousands of slices.  Computer modeling will then be used to build a 3D structure and virtually unroll it to reveal what it reads.  If it works, it'll be an incredible find for fans of ancient history - the priceless  scrolls contain messages from colleagues of Virgil, Cicero, victims of the Vesuvius eruption, the family of Julius Caesar, and we're honestly surprised that an Indiana Jones/Dan Brown tag-team didn't steal them half way through that sentence.  (Brown wouldn't even need to worry about actually reading the scrolls - he could just make them up!)

Ancient history isn't the only application of this work.  There has been talk of using it in a a national security capacity, to reconstruct other destroyed documents, though that would require significant reconfiguring and a lot of work - the carbonization of the papyrus scrolls was something of a freak confluence of mansion design, lava flow and the cutting off of air supply.  Unless terrorists are planning strikes from Dr Evil's volcano lair just as James Bond is in business, we might want to stick with philosophy.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Computer To Read Ancient Scrolls

Comments

[Jonathan Ainsley Bain]

I bet they are actually just shopping lists:

Luigi : Remember to buy 10 loaves of bread, 1 basket of pasta, 3 casks of wine, 2 bottles of olives and a large block of feta, and 3 more scrolls.

And don't forget the scrolls. This shopping list was very costly and cost me 3 sersetti! So get it right this time or I'll throw you in the larva pit that just opened up next door.