Neat News 3684 (added 2026-09-21)
Reading ancient burnt scrolls
© Paul L. Rosin et al. [CC BY 4.0]
In the year 79 Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Herculaneum in pyroclastic material which carbonized organic material such as papyrus. Such papyrus rolls have survived for almost 2000 years but are too brittle to be opened. Now researchers try to reproduce the conditions and build a system based on X-rays and computer power to read the ancient rolls without opening them.
related: #scroll #papyrus #carbonzied