Title: Reading the ancient library from Herculaneum with digital unrolling: new finds and further prospects
Abstract:
The only ancient library to be buried under conditions that ensured its preservation is the collection of books from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79. These 800 scrolls, written in both Greek and Latin, were the most complete books on papyrus to survive from antiquity. Many, opened in the 19th century, were badly damaged in the process, but about 270 remain unopened. In 2023 the Vesuvius Challenge competition, involving the use of Artificial Intelligence and high-energy imaging, led to the first reading of one of these without opening it. This illustrated lecture will present the contents of the new papyrus, the latest news on the unrolling, and the prospects for finding many more papyri at the Villa if only the archaeological excavations there are resumed.