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Scientists Use X-Rays and AI to Read Ancient Scrolls
Confirmed
In Short: Scientists are developing a method to read ancient scrolls from Herculaneum, a city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, using X-ray scans and artificial intelligence.
The scrolls, carbonized by extreme heat, have long posed a challenge for researchers due to their fragile condition.
According to researchers, leaded ink used in the scrolls absorbs up to 25 times more X-rays than the charred papyrus around it.
This property allows scientists to create detailed images of the text inside the scrolls without damaging them.
In 2026, another team successfully used AI to read part of a damaged scroll called PHerc. 1667.
More than 1,800 scrolls and fragments from the ancient library still exist, and researchers have struggled to read many of them because their ink and papyrus both contain carbon.
The researchers focused on lead, which absorbs X-rays far more strongly than charred papyrus.
This technique could help unlock the secrets of the scrolls, which contain valuable historical and cultural information.
The scrolls were part of a large library in Herculaneum, a town near modern Naples, Italy, that was buried under ash and rock.
The library's scrolls were carbonized by extreme heat, leaving fragile blackened objects.
The new method could potentially read more scrolls without the risk of damaging them.
The research is part of ongoing efforts to preserve and study ancient texts.
The team's success with PHerc. 1667 suggests that this method could be applied to other carbonized scrolls.
What this adds
Researchers are now able to read more scrolls without physically unrolling them, a significant advancement from previous methods.
The technique could potentially be applied to other carbonized texts, expanding the scope of historical research.
The study builds on previous research where scientists created and charred their own scrolls to test the method.
The scrolls contain valuable historical and cultural information that could provide new insights into ancient civilizations.
Background
Researchers are employing X-ray scans and artificial intelligence to decipher carbonized papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum without physically unrolling them.
Researchers created and charred their own scrolls to test a new method for deciphering carbonized Herculaneum texts.
What's confirmed
- The scrolls, carbonized by extreme heat, have long posed a challenge for researchers due to their fragile condition.
- According to researchers, leaded ink used in the scrolls absorbs up to 25 times more X-rays than the charred papyrus around it.
- This property allows scientists to create detailed images of the text inside the scrolls without damaging them.
- In 2026, another team successfully used AI to read part of a damaged scroll called PHerc. 1667.
- More than 1,800 scrolls and fragments from the ancient library still exist, and researchers have struggled to read many of them because their ink and papyrus both contain carbon.
- The researchers focused on lead, which absorbs X-rays far more strongly than charred papyrus.
- This technique could help unlock the secrets of the scrolls, which contain valuable historical and cultural information.
- The scrolls were part of a large library in Herculaneum, a town near modern Naples, Italy, that was buried under ash and rock.
- The library's scrolls were carbonized by extreme heat, leaving fragile blackened objects.
- The new method could potentially read more scrolls without the risk of damaging them.
- The research is part of ongoing efforts to preserve and study ancient texts.
- The team's success with PHerc. 1667 suggests that this method could be applied to other carbonized scrolls.
What's still developing
- Scientists have been developing extra genetic letters to give engineered biological systems a wider range of possibilities, including making compounds not found in nature.
- Life uses a four-letter DNA alphabet, but could its genetic machinery read a larger one?
- Tiny amounts of lead in ancient ink create a strong X-ray signal.
- Using data collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, planetary scientists have revealed that a geologically puzzling formation in Jezero crater experienced multiple distinct episodes of water-related alteration, deepening its significance as a target in the search for ancient signs of life on Mars.
- Below what they believe was once the second terrace level of the ancient Jezero lake, the scientists identified evidence of three separate fluid-driven alteration events.
- NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater in February 2021 to investigate the geological record and look for signs of ancient life.
- In new research, Purdue University planetary scientist Candice Bedford and colleagues focused on the Margin unit, a band of olivine- and carbonate-rich rock that traces the inner rim of the crater near an ancient lake shoreline.
- An artist’s reconstruction of Miracinonyx trumani, the extinct “American cheetah.” (Sheatherius/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY‑SA 4.0) The Yukon often brings its past to the surface, but few finds reach as far back, or as far north, as the bones scientists now say belonged to the extinct “American cheetah,” Miracinonyx trumani.
- The study, led by University of California Santa Cruz researcher Molly Cassatt‑Johnstone, analyzed ancient DNA from fossils recovered at Bluefish Caves and Quartz Creek.