Music, food and pleasure in ancient texts

Entire passages from the charred and 2,000-year-old Vesuvius scrolls have now been read with the help of a unique AI project.

With the help of AI and a scanner based on a particle accelerator, entire sections of a papyrus roll that was buried in connection with the Italian eruption of Vesuvius in 79 have been able to be read.

A group including researchers launched a competition last year, where the challenge consisted of discovering ink in the charred scrolls, in order to thereby begin to reveal their contents.

Three students – Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor and Julian Schilliger, share the main prize of 700,000 dollars, equivalent to 7.3 million kroner.

Papyrologists are now analyzing the result, which appears to be from the Greek philosopher Philodemos. According to the experts, the text is about pleasure, where he thinks about whether you enjoy things more when there is a shortage compared to when there is an abundance, and exemplifies with music and food.

So far, only five percent of the scrolls have been read, and a new contest to read the rest of the scrolls has now been announced.