In AD 79 Herculaneum was buried by ash and pumice during the Mount Vesuvius eruption. Also buried were hundreds of scrolls which had been carbonised into solid black lumps and were thought to be undecipherable. The scrolls could not be unrolled to be read without them crumbling and being destroyed.
An international research programme called the Vesuvius Challenge has made the breakthrough to enable the scrolls to be read without unrolling them, by using both advanced imaging to X-ray inside the scrolls and artificial intelligence. Combined with academic research it has been discovered that one of the first scrolls to be deciphered, called PHerc. 1667, is thought to be an early Stoic treatise on ethics and human behaviour.
More than 600 Herculaneum scrolls remain unopened so I wonder what treasures are waiting to be discovered as the research continues.
