Breakthrough discovery names Philodemus as author of 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scroll
In a remarkable fusion of classical archaeology and cutting-edge technology, researchers have identified the author of a carbonized scroll buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly two millennia ago — an ancient Greek philosopher named Philodemus. The scroll, part of a multi-volume philosophical work titled On Vices, was recovered from the ruins of Herculaneum and recently deciphered using advanced X-ray imaging.
Hidden for centuries beneath volcanic ash
The scroll was discovered in a Roman villa believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. The opulent estate, located in the ancient coastal town of Herculaneum, was buried under layers of ash and pumice in 79 AD during the catastrophic eruption that also destroyed nearby Pompeii.
Made from carbonized papyrus, the scroll was too fragile to be opened using traditional methods. For years, attempts to decode its contents failed, with even the ink virtually invisible on the pitch-black, burned surface. Now, however, thanks to virtual unwrapping techniques and 3D X-ray scans, researchers have not only confirmed the presence of ink but also revealed legible Greek letters — including the title and author’s name.
“Nobody knew what it was about”
“It’s the first scroll where the ink could just be seen on the scan. Nobody knew what it was about. We didn’t even know if it had writing on,” said Dr. Michael McOsker, a papyrologist at University College London, in an interview with The Guardian. The scroll is one of three Herculaneum texts held at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.
This technological breakthrough represents a historic milestone in the effort to recover ancient literature, which was thought lost forever.
The Vesuvius Challenge and AI collaboration
Efforts to unlock the secrets of the Herculaneum scrolls gained new momentum in 2023 with the launch of the Vesuvius Challenge — an international competition offering a prize to those who could help decode the charred manuscripts using artificial intelligence and 3D scanning.
Last year, a team of tech-savvy students won the $700,000 grand prize after they successfully identified 2,000 Greek letters from another scroll, using AI-powered software that processed high-resolution scans and reconstructed the text virtually.
“We’re seeing evidence of ink in many of the new scrolls we’ve scanned, but we haven’t converted that into coherent text yet,” explained Dr. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky and co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge. “That’s our current bottleneck: converting the massive scan data into organized sections that are properly segmented, virtually flattened, and enhanced so that the evidence of ink can then be interpreted as actual text.”
A digital renaissance for ancient wisdom
While many Herculaneum scrolls remain unreadable in their charred state, the recent success in identifying Philodemus, a philosopher associated with the Epicurean school—has opened new possibilities. Scholars now hope that similar techniques will yield insights into other works of philosophy, history, and science buried by the eruption.
This discovery not only revives the voice of an ancient thinker but signals the beginning of what could be a new digital renaissance for classical scholarship.
