Lost Library Returns After 2000 Years

Technodummy writes "An update on Reading the Ancient Papyri. The long-buried Villa of the Papyri, one of Italy's richest Roman villas famed for its library of ancient scrolls, opened to the public this weekend almost 2,000 years after it was submerged in volcanic mud. The scrolls, which looked like sticks of charcoal when they were first discovered, have mostly turned out to be works of Greek epicurean philosophy from the first century BC."

Comments

AS much as i hate to refute good christian bashing

[Unknown Poltroon]

THere are a lot of differnt stories about how the library of alexandria was destroyed, from people buring scrolls for heat, to the christians, to the muslims, to lack of funding. Im guessing its a little bit of each.

more info and pictures of scrolls

[lorax]

More information about the villa and the Philodemus Project, including some pictures of the scrolls is at The Philodemus Project

Re:Most exciting!

[CaptainCarrot]

And why, in the case of the Library of Alexandria?

Religious ferver. It was burned to the ground by followers of Christ.

You can believe that if you like, but there's very scant evidence for it no matter what Gibbon might say. There was not, and has ever been, any religious reason for Christians to have burned the Library of Alexandria. If you know of one, please cite a contemporary source. Julius Caesar is just as likely a suspect, as some ancient sources claim he set fire to the part of the city the Library occupied. So is Caliph Omar -- if you think Christians are intolerant, we've got nothing on Islam. (We should know; we've been living with them in the Middle East for about 1200 years now.)

I say "just as likely" above, but that really should be "just as unlikely". All suspects in the burning have good alibis. Fact is, no one knows what happened to the Library. The best online summary I've found of the various legends concerning its fate is here.