The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD was one of the most dramatic natural disasters in recorded history, and yet so many disasters occurred. actual The record of that moment is not accessible. For example, papyrus scrolls at nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum were almost instantly scorched by the volcanic blast and quickly buried under pumice and ash. In 1752, an excavator discovered around 800 such carbonized scrolls, but researchers have since been unable to read most of them due to their fragile condition.
However, on October 12th, the organizers vesuvius challengeAn ongoing machine learning project to crack physically inaccessible libraries has made a major announcement. An AI program discovered the first word on one of the artifacts after analyzing and identifying incredibly small residual ink elements. That word? Πορφύραc, or Porphyrus…for those who don’t speak Greek, “purple”.
[Related: A fresco discovered in Pompeii looks like ancient pizza—but it’s likely focaccia.]
Identifying a word for an everyday color may not sound groundbreaking, but the discovery of “purple” has already piqued the interest of experts.talk to guardian On Thursday, Brent Shields, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky and co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, explained that it’s not that common for that particular word to be found in such documents.
“This word is our first dive into an ancient, unopened book that evokes royalty, wealth, and even ridicule,” Shields said. “Pliny the Elder explores “purple” in his Natural History as a process for producing Tyrian violet from shellfish. The Gospel of Mark describes how Jesus was ridiculed for wearing purple robes before he was crucified. It is still unclear what is being discussed in this scroll, but I believe it will be revealed soon. For us, old and new stories that begin with “purple” are a wonderful place. ”
visualization of Porphyrus This is largely thanks to a 21-year-old computer student named Luke Faritor. He then won $40,000 as part of the Vesuvius Challenge after he identified an additional 10 of his characters contained in the same scroll. Meanwhile, Shields believes the entire scroll should be recoverable, even though scans show that words may be missing in certain areas because it was buried for nearly 2,000 years. There is.
as new york times AI-assisted analysis could soon be applied to the remaining hundreds of carbonized scrolls, it said. Given that these scrolls are thought to have been part of a large library amassed by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, alongside long-lost titles such as The Poems of Sappho, there is a wealth of new It stands to reason that information can emerge.
One papyrus expert said: “If a library like this were to be restored, our knowledge of the ancient world would change in ways we can’t even imagine.” new york times. “The impact may be as great as the rediscovery of Renaissance manuscripts.”
