We're finally reading the secrets of Herculaneum's lost library A whole library's worth of papyri owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law were turned to charcoal by the eruption of Vesuvius. Deep within a particle accelerator, theoretical physicist Giorgio Angelotti is hard at work. He sets a black cylinder on a mount, bolts it down, then runs through some safety checks before retreating from the chamber, known as "the hatch". "You have to be sure there's no one in the hatch before you close the door," he says. That's because he is about to blast the sample with a super-powerful beam of X-rays.

Few objects pique the curiosity of academics quite like the Herculaneum scrolls – the ancient documents buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. These priceless rolled-up documents carry ancient text written in carbon-based ink on papyrus – a material similar to paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant. Now, for the first time, researchers have found the title and author inside one of the scrolls known as PHerc. With the help of AI, it has been identified as'On Vices' by the Greek philosopher Philodemus, a historic ethical treatise providing guidance for'cultivating a virtuous life'. In recognition of this achievement, researchers have been awarded the Vesuvius Challenge First Title Prize, which includes prize money of 60,000/ 45,000.

It's been left unread for nearly 2,000 years, last glimpsed when the Roman Empire ruled over Europe. Now, scientists have used AI to virtually unfurl one of the Herculaneum scrolls – the ancient documents buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. 'It's an incredible moment in history as librarians, computer scientists and scholars of the classical period are collaborating to see the unseen,' said Richard Ovenden, senior executive Bodleian Libraries. '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.' The Herculaneum scrolls are thought to contain profound philosophical and literary texts from ancient Greek and Roman scholars. The problem is that any attempts to unroll the burnt cylinders will turn them to dust because they are so fragile – meaning the words would be lost forever.

They were turned to carbonized lumps by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Now, scientists are offering 400,000 to the person who can decipher the charred Herculaneum Scrolls. These ancient rolls of papyrus – a material similar to paper – are thought to contain profound philosophical and literary texts from ancient Greek and Roman scholars. The problem is that any attempts to unroll the burnt cylinders will turn them to dust, because they are so fragile. So, scientists have been turning to ingenious methods such as x-ray scanning, ink-detection software and AI to virtually'unroll' them.

More than 2,000 years after Plato died, the towering figure of classical antiquity and founder of the Academy, regarded by many as the first university in the west, can still make front-page news. Researchers this week claimed to have found the final resting place of the Greek philosopher, a patch in the garden of his Athens Academy, after scanning an ancient papyrus scroll recovered from the library of a Herculaneum villa that was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79. The project belongs to a new wave of efforts that seek to read, restore and translate ancient and even lost languages with cutting-edge technologies. Armed with modern tools, many powered by artificial intelligence, scholars are starting to read what had long been considered unreadable. "It's going to have a huge impact," said Dr Kilian Fleischer, a papyrologist who worked on The History of the Academy, the scroll that revealed details of Plato's life.

The Herculaneum Scrolls contain hugely significant philosophical and literary texts from ancient Greek and Roman scholars, but were turned to carbonized lumps by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Attempts to unroll the scrolls have damaged or destroyed them, turning the precious coal-like relics to dust. Now, scientists are using clever scanning techniques to identify the text written within – without having to unroll the fragile'papyrus' pages. The team has already read one of the scrolls to discover how Greek philosopher Plato spent his last evening 2,500 years ago - but say other huge revelations about Socrates could be in store. Graziano Ranocchia, a papyrologist from the University of Pisa in Italy, said: 'Plato is just the start'.

An Italian researcher has claimed to have found the long-lost burial place of the famed Greek philosopher Plato who died around 348 BC. Graziano Ranocchia used AI to decipher the Herculaneum scrolls, charred papyrus found buried by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD, revealing new text that pointed to an exact location in Athens. The analysis showed Plato was buried in'The Academy,' a famous school founded by the philosopher in 387 BC, near the so-called Museion - a small building sacred to the Muses that no longer stands among the ruins. Ranocchia and his team uncovered 1,000 words, corresponding to 30 percent of the text, using the'bionic eye' - and believe they will have the papyrus completely analyzed by 2026. The analysis showed Plato was buried in'The Academy,' a famous school founded by the philosopher in 387 BC, near the so-called Museion - a small building sacred to the Muses The team uncovered 1,000 words, corresponding to 30 percent of the text, using the'bionic eye' - and believe they will have the papyrus completely analyzed by 2026 'Compared to previous editions, there is now an almost radically changed text, implying a number of new and concrete facts about various academic philosophers,' Ranocchia said in a statement.

The famous Herculaneum scroll, charred papyrus found buried by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD, has been deciphered by artificial intelligence. The feat was achieved by students in a contest that trained algorithms on scans of the artifact, which would otherwise be destroyed if unraveled by human hands. The winning team read more than 2,000 'never-before-seen' texts that discussed sources of pleasure, such as music, the taste of capers and the color purple. The winning team read more than 2,000 'never-before-seen' texts, which discussed sources of pleasure, such as music, the taste of capers and the color purple The Vesuvius Challenge was launched in March 2023 by Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, and Silicon Valley backers. At the time, Seales released thousands of 3D images of two rolled-up scrolls, as well as an AI program that had been trained to read letters in the marks left by ink.

The uncanny ability of artificial intelligence to spot patterns in large amounts of data could finally unravel some of the thorniest mysteries of the ancient world. Researchers working with companies such as IBM and Google's Deepmind are on the brink of deciphering ancient texts once thought unreadable - and even'cracking' an unknown language from almost two millennia before the birth of Christ. AI allows researchers to sift through images far faster than human beings, and the techniques could answer fundamental questions about the history of language and potentially uncover lost works by Greek and Roman writers. A mysterious unknown language, 'Linear A' discovered on tablets in Crete in 1900 has never been deciphered - but AI might be able to crack the code. Among the world's most famous examples of unknown languages, stones and tablets written in the strange'LInear A' language is considered the main script used by the Minoan civilization, a Bronze Age kingdom led by King Minos.

After proving that an artificial intelligence algorithm can extract letters and symbols from high-resolution X-ray photographs of the delicate, unrolled sheets, researchers are announcing a global competition to decipher the burned papyri, The Guardian reports. Led by computer scientist Prof. Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky, researchers could read the ink on the surface and hidden layers of scrolls by training a machine-learning algorithm to spot subtle differences in the papyrus structure captured by the X-ray images. "We've shown how to read the ink of Herculaneum. That gives us the opportunity to reveal 50, 70, maybe 80 percent of the entire collection," said Seales. Now we want everybody to get on and sail it with us."