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Inside the quest to digitally unroll ancient scrolls burnt by Vesuvius

Mission to decipher Herculaneum scrolls using high-resolution scanning and artificial intelligence scales up rapidly.
By
  1. Jo Marchant

    1. Jo Marchant is a science journalist based in London.

On 27 March, a private jet arrived at London Luton Airport with some unusual, delicate cargo. Rather than designer luggage, the plane carried 18 ancient scrolls from the Vittorio Emanuele III National Library in Naples, Italy. The tightly rolled papyri were being transported to the Diamond Light Source particle accelerator near Oxford, where researchers used the synchrotron’s powerful X-rays to reveal the scrolls’ contents.

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Nature 641, 13-15 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01087-y

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