Slashdot Mirror
Interior of Burnt Herculaneum Scroll Read For First Time
New submitter Solandri writes: When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, it destroyed a library of classical works in Herculaneum. The papyrus scrolls weren't incinerated, but were instead carbonized by the hot gases. The resulting black carbon cylinders have mostly withstood attempts to read their contents since their discovery. Earlier attempts to unfurl the scrolls yielded some readable material, but were judged too destructive. Researchers decided to wait for newer technology to be invented that could read the scrolls without unrolling them.
Now, a team led by Dr. Vito Mocella from the National Research Council's Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems (CNR-IMM) in Naples, Italy has managed to read individual letters inside one of the scrolls. Using a form of x-ray phase contrast tomography (abstract), they were able to ascertain the height difference (about 0.1mm) between the ink of the letters and the papyrus fibers which they sat upon. Due to the fibrous nature of the papyrus and the carbon-based ink, regular spectral and chemical analysis had thus far been unable to distinguish the ink from the paper. Further complicating the work, the scrolls are not in neat cylinders, but squashed and ruffled as the hot gases vaporized water in the papyrus and distorted the paper.
Now, a team led by Dr. Vito Mocella from the National Research Council's Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems (CNR-IMM) in Naples, Italy has managed to read individual letters inside one of the scrolls. Using a form of x-ray phase contrast tomography (abstract), they were able to ascertain the height difference (about 0.1mm) between the ink of the letters and the papyrus fibers which they sat upon. Due to the fibrous nature of the papyrus and the carbon-based ink, regular spectral and chemical analysis had thus far been unable to distinguish the ink from the paper. Further complicating the work, the scrolls are not in neat cylinders, but squashed and ruffled as the hot gases vaporized water in the papyrus and distorted the paper.
The scrolls were found to contain long-winded, mostly irrational arguments regarding the contents of another (unseen) scroll. Each began with the phrase: 'primum scribe'
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
You're not going back far enough.
The most recent scroll has only a small fragment deciphered so far.
It says "Move 'ZIG'".
Modern ones are Much larger; I could provide a link if you'd like... :)
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
"If you don't copy this scroll and send it to ten people within the next 24 hours, you will die in a volcano eruption!"
Wow, somebody actually planned ahead instead of dived in face first making a mess to get first publishing credit.
There is hope for (some of) humanity after all.
Table-ized A.I.
They called it being "Rick Scrolled" back then.
Table-ized A.I.
Many people don't realize just how few classical texts actually have survived. The total volume of ancient Latin and Greek texts we have available to us is probably a little less than the volume of a middle school library. There are dozens of famous classical authors who we only know of from references by other authors, as none of their work survives. The chance to have new literature from that world, untouched by translation or transcription, is incredible.
One of the images they've recovered literally says "HEY".
No, really.
Only in the book they were using neutrinos, I think. Lotsa luck with that...
... the oldest goatse in history.
They already found that: http://blogs.artinfo.com/artin...
"A statue of the Roman half-goat, half-man god Pan - who was the Greeks' god of the wild - getting wild with a female goat (see above) has proven so NSFW (or, in this case, NSFM) that the British Museum has placed a parental advisory in the gallery where it will be on view as part of the upcoming exhibition 'Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum.' The statue was excavated from beneath some 100 feet of Volcanic ash that enveloped the Villa of the Papyri, the residence of Julius Caesar's father-in-law Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, on the slope Mount Vesuvius."
Have gnu, will travel.
Just soak 'em in water.
Like they did to Han in Return of the Jedi?
That's much easier (typically only three layers of paper and the envelope, and not burnt), so yes.
They just open the letter. They don't care if you know you are being watched. Everyone is being watched. The "problem" with the scrolls is that opening them destroys them.
Learn to love Alaska
D r i n k...m o r e...O v a l t i n e
https://xkcd.com/54/
...They'll probably discover that they are nothing more than a rich child's dirty limerick collection.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Earlier attempts to unfurl the scrolls yielded some readable material, but were judged too destructive.
unfurl. verb: to shake out from a furled state, as a sail or a flag
Maybe if they just tried to gently unroll them they might have had better luck.
Chakka, when the walls fell
Big spoilers in Wikipedia beyond context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
"In the introduction to the omnibus edition The Two Moons, Hogan revealed that the first book, Inherit the Stars, was inspired by a viewing of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he enjoyed until the ending. Complaining about what he saw as the confusing, effects-heavy conclusion at work afterwards, each of his colleagues bet him five pounds that he couldn't write and publish a science-fiction novel. The result was Inherit the Stars, which was published by Del Rey Books in May 1977. He later asked Arthur C. Clarke about the meaning of the ending of 2001, to which Clarke reportedly replied that while the ending of Hogan's Inherit the Stars made more sense, the ending of 2001 made more money."
The scanner is what draws in the main character into the whole plot, since the space agency ultimately wants to use it to scan the equipment of a 50,000 year old space-suited human corpse found on the moon, but then the main character's involvement builds from there.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Now the DEA can take burnt up old roaches from a stoner's ashtray and find what brand of rolling paper they use! Federal tax dollars well spent!