Breakthrough after more than 250 years: Swiss researcher deciphers this charred scroll

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The Romans are still known today for their philosophy, architecture and politics. But ancient people also had other things on their minds, as the Herculaneum Papyri scrolls prove. For a long time it was impossible to decipher the contents.

Now a team of researchers from the US, Germany and Switzerland have solved the mystery surrounding the scrolls. The result: The Romans preferred to talk about food, for example about capers, music and the color violet.

Various algorithms have been developed

The documents were found in the 18th century in an old Roman villa in what was then Herculaneum. The city was destroyed along with Pompeii during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The condition of the papers was similar: charred and illegible. And so for a long time it was unclear what was on the rolls.

In 2023, the ‘Vesuvius Challenge’ was launched – with a particularly high reward. Anyone who can solve the puzzle was promised $700,000. A team led by computer scientist Brent Seales examined the charred scrolls. The team, consisting of Youssef Nader from Germany, Julian Schilliger from ETH Zurich and Luke Farritor from the US, quickly realized that this was a difficult task. Algorithms and scans developed over the years to examine the documents for residual ink were unable to distinguish between the papyri themselves and the ink.

The poet Philodemus is said to have written the scrolls

A $125,000 donation from Silicon Valley entrepreneur Nat Friedmann helped the team achieve their breakthrough. The researchers were now able to develop an AI-supported algorithm that also revealed the author of the texts. Philosopher and poet Philodemus (110–35 BC) is said to have written the writings.

Robert Frowler, former professor of Greek at the University of Bristol and president of the Herculaneum Society, thinks this is plausible. According to him, Philodemus wrote in the scrolls about life and the ability to have fun. And philosophize about whether things that are hard to get bring you more joy than things that are easy to get. But he couldn’t find an answer to the question.

Source: Blick