An entire Herculaneum scroll has been read for the first time
Breakthrough: A Herculaneum Scroll Read in Full for the First Time
Date: June 25th,
Project: Vesuvius Challenge
Key Achievement: The complete virtual unrolling and transcription of PHerc. 1667.
For nearly two millennia, the library of Herculaneum existed as a paradox. While the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in preserved these scrolls, it did so by carbonizing them, rendering them too brittle to be physically handled. Opening them by hand would mean destroying them.
However, the Vesuvius Challenge community has successfully read PHerc. 1667 (known internally as Scroll 4) from start to finish without ever physically touching the papyrus.
Figure 1: The reconstructed writing surface of PHerc. 1667, spanning roughly .
🛠️ The Technical Process
The team bypassed the need for physical intervention by utilizing a sophisticated digital pipeline. Instead of mechanical unwrapping, they employed a "virtual" approach.
The Workflow Details:
- Imaging: High-resolution phase-contrast X-ray microtomography was performed at the BM18 beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble.
- Reconstruction: The team mapped the wound sheets within the carbonized mass.
- Enhancement: Machine learning models were trained to distinguish the nearly invisible ink from the blackened papyrus.
- Verification: Expert papyrologists reviewed and transcribed the resulting text.
📜 Analysis of PHerc. 1667
This scroll represents a major milestone: it is the first time a rolled Herculaneum papyrus has been read continuously rather than in fragmented patches.
Physical and Content Specifications
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Current Height | (reduced from by previous failed attempts) |
| Total Length | |
| Text Volume | |
| Philosophical School | Stoicism |
| Estimated Date | |
| Key Figure Mentioned | Aristocreon (disciple of Chrysippus) |
The text is a treatise on ethics, focusing on human nature, impulses, and moral evolution. Despite some gaps due to physical damage, several profound passages have emerged:
"...we will inquire into something, but we will not grasp it, if in some way we depart from ourselves and from our own nature..."
"Having...strained ourselves to the utmost through research and learning...possessing the same practical wisdom..."
"...such being the goods for us, even from the opposite evils there will be neither anything good — let alone beautiful — nor anything bad — let alone ugly — nor happiness..."
🔍 Further Discoveries: PHerc. Paris 4
The project also achieved a breakthrough with PHerc. Paris 4 (Scroll 1). By using even higher-resolution imaging, the team made the ink directly visible within the 3D X-ray data.
- Validation: This 3D segmentation matched the 2023 Grand Prize reading perfectly, providing independent confirmation of the results.
- Identification: The ink revealed the title and author: Philodemus, On Gods, Book 8. This is an Epicurean work, typical of the library's collection.
Figure 2: Comparison between the 2023 reading and the new 3D ink projection.
🌐 A Triumph for Open Science
This achievement was made possible through a collaboration with the National Library of Naples “Vittorio Emanuele III”. To ensure the results are verifiable and scalable, the project has adopted a fully open-source ethos.
Accessing the Data
The community can access the resources via the following:
- Data:
scrollprize.org/data(Creative Commons license) - Code: Available on GitHub.
# Example: Accessing the project repository
git clone https://github.com/vesuvius-challenge/scroll-unwrapping-code.git
Project Milestones
- Virtually unwrap PHerc. 1667
- Recover 22 columns of Stoic text
- Confirm Philodemus attribution for Paris 4
- Apply method to remaining sealed scrolls
- Complete full library digitization