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Lost Library Returns After 2000 Years

Posted by michael on from the mudbath dept.

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."

8 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Sticks of charcoal? by Lazyhound · · Score: 5, Funny


    Why? Did they store them on top of IBM monitors?

  2. who would have thought? by kurosawdust · · Score: 3, Funny

    It turns out that the last item checked out was "Burying a Village for Plebians"

  3. Libraries by CokeBear · · Score: 4, Funny

    The crazy thing about libraries is that if they didn't exist and someone tried to invent them today, the publishers would have a conniption fit, and it would never happen. Give away knowledge for free? What are you, crazy? We'd go broke! Only a pinko/commie/liberal would come up with such a whacked out idea.

    --
    Reality has a liberal bias
  4. What about the Latin section? by nycroft · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Villa of the Papyri, located in ancient Herculaneum, and having been a Roman city is also thought to have a Latin section, still buried beneath the mud. Since Herculaneum was buried in mud, not ash like Pompeii, it is extremely difficult to dig the rest of the villa out. Not to mention that the foundations of buildings from the modern city of Ercolano probably impede the archaeologist's progress. As for letting the public in, I think that's great. I only hope they drained the pool of funky bacteria-infested swamp water below the entrance that has built up over the years.

    --
    Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action.
  5. AS much as i hate to refute good christian bashing by Unknown+Poltroon · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
  6. I can see it now by moc.tfosorcimgllib · · Score: 4, Funny

    Classics 180 & 181 just got a hell of a lot more material.

  7. Did they say... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...what percentage of it is porn?

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    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  8. more info and pictures of scrolls by lorax · · Score: 4, Informative

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