AI Facilitates Decoding Ancient Text Attributed to Caesar’s Family
During the 18th century, many papyrus scrolls were found in the library of an opulent villa in Herculaneum. However, their contents remained unknown because scholars couldn’t unroll the scrolls to decode them. Any attempts to do so caused them to fall apart. Recently three students won a $1 million prize after they used artificial intelligence to read a scroll that was burnt during Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in August 79AD. The 2,000-year-old scroll was charred in the town of Herculaneum during the mountain’s eruption, making it unreadable. Dr. Federica of the University of Naples stated that the scrolls’ being badly burnt…