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Interior of Burnt Herculaneum Scroll Read For First Time

Posted by Soulskill on from the old-grocery-lists dept.

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.

10 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Primum scribee / first post by jblues · · Score: 5, Funny

    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>
    1. Re:Primum scribee / first post by mythosaz · · Score: 4, Funny

      Odd. I thought the recovered text started Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

    2. Re:Primum scribee / first post by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 4, Funny

      The scrolls were found to contain long-winded, mostly irrational arguments regarding the contents of another (unseen) scroll.

      They need to set the x-ray phase contrast imaging device to scan at -1 to see hidden scrolls...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    3. Re: Primum scribee / first post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a rant about systemd.

  2. initial translation of the text by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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!"

  3. Elect that dude prez by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    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.
  4. Re:The only readable phrase so far by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    They called it being "Rick Scrolled" back then.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  5. This is incredibly exciting by Headw1nd · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:This is incredibly exciting by PRMan · · Score: 5, Informative

      The New Testament is very common with 5,000 Greek copies (and all within 400 years of the events, some within 100 years). But after that it drops off quickly. There are 643 copies of Homer's Iliad, but the closest to his writing is over 500 years. There are only 20 copies of Tacitus, but the closest is 1,000 years later. We have only 7 copies of Plato and 5 of Aristotle.

      All that to say we might find something incredibly significant in this library. Something we have never had before or something that is a much older copy of something that we already have against which we can check accuracy.

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  6. Re:And they found... by RDW · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... 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."