How AI is helping to unravel the mystery of the ancient scrolls buried in the eruption of Mount Vesubio

Artificial intelligence is helping to solve a Ancient mystery of the Roman Empire Involving scrolls from a library that was buried when Mount Vesubio exploded.

Vesubio’s eruption in 79 AD not only erased Pompeii, but also the nearby city of Herculano.

At the bottom of the surface where there was a villa, archaeologists in the 18th century found 1,800 papyrus scrolls in the only old library in the world that is still intact. Attempts to unravel some of the scrolls ended in ashes when the library was carbonized, Brent Seales, a computer scientist at Kentucky University, explained.

“People did not understand what they had. So, some scrolls were actually throwing or burned and can not put Humpty Dumpty again,” said Seales.

But thanks to the technology of the 21st century, experts can now examine them still intact.

That technology involved a particle accelerator in England. The scientists produced light that was 10 billion times brighter than the sun, very similar to an radiography. AI was used to identify ink, regardless of how weak.

“I thought for myself, if you can use that technology to see not invasively within a human body, why can’t we see everything within an artifact like a scroll?” Selles said.

Decipher the parchment

They still needed humans to decipher what the letters mean. Then, Seales launched Vesuvius Challenge, a global competition that offers $ 700,000 in money awards.

Three university students took him home, making history when he was First to extract words from a carbonized scrollalmost 2,000 years, which had been practically unwilling.

With hundreds of more scrolls, Seales has launched a second phase of the competition.

“With the methods inspired by AI that they will introduce, you know, new results that we have not dreamed of, I do not believe that the Renaissance is a word too strong,” he said.

Mr.

“I think the Villa de los Papyros, which has not been completely excavated, has a great possibility of producing more books,” he said. “There is a lot for us to discover.”

• Archaeologist
• Rash
• Artificial intelligence