| An entire Herculaneum scroll has been read for the first time(scrollprize.org) | |
| 1697 points by verditelabs 57 days ago | 365 comments | |
tl;dr: Researchers have virtually unwrapped and read PHerc. 1667, a carbonized Herculaneum scroll, end-to-end for the first time, using high-resolution X-ray microtomography at ESRF's BM18 beamline combined with machine learning to detect ink. The recovered text—roughly 22 columns of Greek—appears to be a 2nd-century BC Stoic treatise on ethics referencing Aristocreon, disciple of Chrysippus. The team also confirmed prior readings of Scroll 1 via direct 3D ink detection and identified another scroll as Philodemus's *On Gods, Book 8*; all data, code, and transcriptions are openly released. | |
HN Discussion:
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