Artificial Intelligence

AI Decodes 2,000-Year-Old Scroll Burned by Mount Vesuvius

Published MAY 7 2025

Story

Above: On Vices. Image credit: Vesuvius Challenge via X

The Facts

Researchers have successfully identified the title and author of a charred scroll buried during Mount Vesuvius' eruption in 79 AD, revealing it as "On Vices" by the Greek philosopher Philodemus. This is the first time such details have been gleaned from a sealed Herculaneum scroll.
CNN
The Jerusalem Post
The discovery came through a combination of advanced X-ray scanning at the U.K.'s Diamond Light Source facility and artificial intelligence (AI) analysis. Researchers Marcel Roth, Micha Nowak, and Sean Johnson independently confirmed the findings as part of the Vesuvius Challenge.
The US Sun
ChosunBiz
The scroll was discovered among hundreds of others in a villa believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, preserved under volcanic ash and mud for nearly two millennia. Previous attempts to physically unroll similar scrolls have resulted in their destruction.
Interesting Engineering
CNN
The text is part of Philodemus' larger ethical treatise, "On Vices and Their Opposite Virtues." Researchers have identified multiple Greek words, including "disgust," which appears twice within the visible text columns.
guardian
Daily Mail
The Oxford scroll proved unique among Herculaneum materials due to its ink's chemical composition, which appears more clearly in X-ray scans, possibly due to the presence of denser contaminants such as lead.
University of Oxford
Diamond
The discovery builds on earlier breakthroughs from the Vesuvius Challenge, including decoding 2,000 ancient Greek letters by a team of students who shared a $700,000 prize in 2023.
Interesting Engineering
The Jerusalem Post

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The Spin

Techno-optimist narrative

The groundbreaking fusion of AI and advanced X-ray technology has revolutionized the study of ancient texts, enabling scholars to access the teachings of Epicurean philosophy that shaped classical thinking that has remained locked away for two millennia. This technological breakthrough shows how modern innovation can unlock historical mysteries and lost chapters of human history without damaging priceless artifacts.

The Times (UK)

Techno-skeptic narrative

The claim that AI fully "decodes" a 2,000-year-old Vesuvius scroll overstates the achievement. While AI has contributed valuable tools to studying ancient texts, results remain partial and speculative. The hype risks misleading the public about current capabilities, downplaying the immense complexities of ancient texts, and the indispensable role of human expertise in historical interpretation and linguistic context.