PREVIEW

Roman Philosophy Scrolls Thought Lost In Vesuvius Eruption Deciphered After 2,000 Years. Almost two millennia ago, the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 not only buried the city of Pompeii and the town of Herculaneum but enveloped an ancient library of papyrus scrolls, now known as the Herculaneum Papyri. Discovered in the 18th century, over 800 of these scrolls are housed in a Naples library. However, due to their carbonised ash state, opening them risks severe damage. Although the scrolls are preserved - they had not been read since Roman times - until now. On March 15, 2023, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Brent Seales initiated the Vesuvius Challenge. Using high-resolution CT scans from the Diamond Light Source particle accelerator near Oxford, the scrolls were scanned. X-ray photos are turned into a 3D volume of voxels using tomographic reconstruction algorithms, resulting in a stack of slice images. Contestants using machine learning models and domain adaptation techniques aimed to decipher the scrolls and earn a share of $1 million in prize pot. The Vesuvius Challenge Grand Prize of $700,000 was awarded to Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger - who decrypted 85% of the first scroll. The text, focusing on pleasure in Epicurean philosophy, hints at a philosophical treatise by Greek philosopher Philodemus, possibly from a four-part treatise on music. With the aim of reading 90% of the scrolls in 2024, a new Grand Prize will be awarded to the first team achieving this milestone.