Researchers and Silicon Valley are using tools powered by AI to uncover lives of ancient philosophers
Passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius have been deciphered hyperspectral imaging.Passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius have been deciphered hyperspectral imaging.
The History of the Academy, written by the epicurean philosopher Philodemus from the first century, has been studied for many years and modern editions exist. The researchers’ goal was to produce a more comprehensive edition. It’s no easy task when the scroll is in pieces from being unrolled and the papyrus as black as the ink written on it. Substantial portions of text are faded, missing or illegible.
Armed with the scans, the team reconstructed 20% to 30% more of the text, with the additional words slotted into place amounting to 1,000 extra letters. The words for “buried” and “garden” do not appear in the scroll itself – they are conjected from other characters and context. The contents of the remaining scrolls is up for debate. Some may be Latin texts. There could be poems by Sappho, Mark Anthony’s treatise on drunkenness, perhaps early writings on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Some of the scrolls are stuck together, which could shed light on how ancient libraries were organised.
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