![Herculaneum papyrus 1425](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Herculaneum_papyrus_1425.png)
The Herculaneum papyri are more than 1,800
papyri
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a d ...
found in the
Herculaneum
Herculaneum (; Neapolitan and it, Ercolano) was an ancient town, located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
Like the nea ...
Villa of the Papyri
The Villa of the Papyri ( it, Villa dei Papiri, also known as ''Villa dei Pisoni'' and in early excavation records as the ''Villa Suburbana'') was an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after ...
, in the 18th century,
carbonized
Carbonized were a Sweden, Swedish avant-garde metal band formed 1988 in Saltsjöbaden. The band was formed by Lars Rosenberg in 1988, with Dismember (band), Dismember vocalist Matti Kärki. Joined by drummer Piotr Wawrzeniuk, the trio was compl ...
by the
eruption
Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...
of
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of s ...
in AD 79.
The papyri, containing a number of
Greek philosophical texts, come from the only surviving
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
from antiquity that exists in its entirety.
[Interview with Daniel Delattre: the Herculaneum scrolls given to Consul Bonaparte (2010), Napoleon.org](_blank)
As many as 44 of the works discovered were written by the
Epicurean
Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism. Later its main opponent became Stoicism.
Few writings by Epi ...
philosopher and poet
Philodemus
Philodemus of Gadara ( grc-gre, Φιλόδημος ὁ Γαδαρεύς, ''Philodēmos'', "love of the people"; c. 110 – prob. c. 40 or 35 BC) was an Arabic Epicurean philosopher and poet. He studied under Zeno of Sidon in Athens, before moving ...
.
Discovery
![Dionysus-or-Plato-Herculaneum-papyri-Villa-of-the-Papyri-Barker](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Dionysus-or-Plato-Herculaneum-papyri-Villa-of-the-Papyri-Barker.jpg)
Due to the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of s ...
in 79 AD, bundles of scrolls were carbonized by the intense heat of the
pyroclastic
Pyroclastic rocks (derived from the el, πῦρ, links=no, meaning fire; and , meaning broken) are clastic rocks composed of rock fragments produced and ejected by explosive volcanic eruptions. The individual rock fragments are known as pyroc ...
flows.
This intense parching took place over an extremely short period of time, in a room deprived of oxygen, resulting in the scrolls' carbonization into compact and highly fragile blocks.
They were then preserved by the layers of cement-like rock.
In 1752, workmen of the
Bourbon royal family accidentally discovered what is now known as the
Villa of the Papyri
The Villa of the Papyri ( it, Villa dei Papiri, also known as ''Villa dei Pisoni'' and in early excavation records as the ''Villa Suburbana'') was an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after ...
.
There may still be a lower section of the Villa's collection that remains buried.
Ethel Ross Barker noted in her 1908 ''Buried Herculaneum'':
Excavations
In the 18th century, the first digs began. The excavation appeared closer to mining projects, as mineshafts were dug, and horizontal subterranean galleries were installed. Workers would place objects in baskets and send them back up.
With the backing of
Charles III of Spain
it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese
, house = Bourbon-Anjou
, father = Philip V of Spain
, mother = Elisabeth Farnese
, birth_date = 20 January 1716
, birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain
, death_d ...
(1716 – 1788),
Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre
Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre (16 August 1702 – 14 March 1780) was a military engineer in the Spanish Army who discovered architectural remains at Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Early life
Alcubierre was born and studied in Zaragoza, Spain. When he rea ...
headed the systematic excavation of Herculaneum with
Karl Jakob Weber
Karl Jakob Weber (12 August 1712 – 1764) was a Swiss architect and engineer who was in charge of the first organized excavations at Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae, under the patronage of Charles VII of Naples. At first a soldier and milit ...
.
Barker noted in her 1908 ''Buried Herculaneum'', "By the orders of
Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to:
* Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407)
* Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450
* Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547
* Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...
land was purchased, and in 1828 excavations were begun in two parts apart, under the direction of the architect. Carlo Bonucci. In the year 1868 still further purchases of land were made, and excavations were carried on in an eastward direction till 1875. The total area now open measures 300 by 150 perches (1510 by 756 meters). The limits of the excavations to the north and east respectively are the modern streets of Vico di Mare and Vico Ferrara. It is here only that any portion of ancient Herculaneum may be seen in the open day."
It is uncertain how many papyri were originally found as many of the scrolls were destroyed by workmen or when scholars extracted them from the volcanic
tuff
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...
.
The official list amounts to 1,814 rolls and fragments, of which 1,756 had been discovered by 1855. In the 90s it was reported that the inventory now comprises 1826 papyri, with more than 340 are almost complete, about 970 are partly decayed and partly decipherable, and more than 500 are merely charred fragments.
In a 2016 open letter, academics asked the Italian authorities to consider new excavations, since it is assumed that many more papyri may be buried at the site. Authors argue that "the volcano may erupt again and put the villa effectively beyond reach" and "Posterity will not forgive us if we squander this chance. The excavation must proceed".
Post-excavation history
In 1802,
King Ferdinand IV of Naples
Ferdinand I (12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825) was the King of the Two Sicilies from 1816, after his restoration following victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Before that he had been, since 1759, Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinand I ...
offered six rolls to
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
in a diplomatic move. In 1803, along with other treasures, the scrolls were transported by
Francesco Carelli Francesco Carelli (8 October 1758 in Conversano – 17 September 1832 in Naples) was an administrative officer of the Kingdom of Naples and an important numismatist, coin collector and antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (pers ...
. Upon receiving the gift, Bonaparte then gave the scrolls to
Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...
under charge of
Gaspard Monge
Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Durin ...
and
Vivant Denon
Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon (4 January 1747 – 27 April 1825) was a French artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist. Denon was a diplomat for France under Louis XV and Louis XVI. He was appointed as the first Director of the Louvre ...
.
In 1810, eighteen unrolled papyri were given to
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
, four of which he presented to the
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
; the rest are now mainly in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
.
[
]
Unrolling
Since their discovery, previous attempts used rose water, liquid mercury, vegetable gas, sulfuric compounds, papyrus juice, or a mixture of ethanol, glycerin, and warm water, in hopes to make scrolls readable. According to Antonio de Simone and Richard Janko at first the papyri were mistaken for carbonized tree branches, some perhaps were even thrown away or burnt to make heat.
Opening a scroll would often damage or destroy the scroll completely. If a scroll had been successfully opened, the original inkexposed to airwould begin to fade. In addition, this form of unrolling often would leave pages stuck together, omitting or destroying additional information.
With X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), no ink can be seen as carbon-based ink is not visible on carbonized papyrus.
Early attempts
Following the discovery of the Herculaneum papyri in 1752, per the advice from Bernardo Tanucci
Bernardo Tanucci (20 February 1698 – 29 April 1783) was an Italian statesman, who brought an enlightened absolutism style of government to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies for Charles III and his son Ferdinand IV.
Biography
Born of a poor fami ...
, King Charles VII of Naples established a commission to study them.
Possibly the first attempts to read the scrolls were done by the artist Camillo Paderni
Camillo Paderni, or Camillus Paderni, lived from c. 1715 to 1781. He was an illustrator, excavator, and curator at the Museum Herculanense, as part of King Charles VII of Naples royal Palace in Portici, and a Roman.
Papyri
Paderni was possibly ...
who was in charge of recovered items. Paderni used the method of slicing scrolls in half, copying readable text, by removing papyri layers. This transcription procedure was used for hundreds of scrolls, and in the process destroyed them.
In 1756, Abbot Piaggio, conserver of ancient manuscripts in the Vatican Library
The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...
, used a machine he also invented, to unroll the first scroll, which took four years (millimeters per day). The results were then swiftly copied (since the writing rapidly disappeared: see below), reviewed by Hellenist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient ...
academics, and then corrected once more, if necessary, by the unrolling/copying team.
In 1802, King Ferdinand IV of Naples
Ferdinand I (12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825) was the King of the Two Sicilies from 1816, after his restoration following victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Before that he had been, since 1759, Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinand I ...
appointed Rev. John Hayter to assist the process.
From 1802 to 1806, Hayter unrolled and partly deciphered some 200 papyri. These copies are held in the Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
, where they are known as the "Oxford Facsimiles of the Herculaneum Papyri".
In January 1816, Pierre-Claude Molard and Raoul Rochette led an attempt to unroll one papyrus with a replica of Abbot Piaggio's machine. However, the entire scroll was destroyed without any information being obtained.
From 1819 until 1820, Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...
was commissioned by the prince regent
A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
to work on the Herculaneum papyri. Although it is considered that he had only limited success, Davy's chemical method, using chlorine managed to partially unroll 23 manuscripts.
In 1877, a papyrus was taken to a laboratory in the Louvre. An attempt to unravel it was made with a "small mill", but it was unsuccessful and was partially destroyed, leaving only a quarter intact.
By the middle of the 20th century, only 585 rolls or fragments had been completely unrolled, and 209 unrolled in part. Of the unrolled papyri, about 200 had been deciphered and published, and about 150 only deciphered.[
]
Modern attempts
The bulk of the preserved manuscripts are housed in the Office of Herculaneum papyri in National Library of Naples.
In 1969, Marcello Gigante founded the creation of the International Center for the Study of the Herculaneum Papyri (''Centro Internazionale per lo Studio dei Papiri Ercolanesi''; CISPE).[CISPE](_blank)
''Il Centro Internazionale per lo Studio dei Papiri Ercolanesi'' With the intention of working toward the resumption of the excavation of the Villa of the Papyri
The Villa of the Papyri ( it, Villa dei Papiri, also known as ''Villa dei Pisoni'' and in early excavation records as the ''Villa Suburbana'') was an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after ...
, and promoting the renewal of studies of the Herculaneum texts, the institution began a new method of unrolling. Using the 'Oslo' method, the CISPE team separated individual layers of the papyri. One of the scrolls exploded into 300 parts, and another did similarly but to a lesser extent.
Since 1999, the papyri have been digitized by applying multi-spectral imaging (MSI) techniques. International experts and prominent scholars participated in the project. On 4 June 2011 it was announced that the task of digitizing 1,600 Herculaneum papyri had been completed.
Since 2007, a team working with Institut de Papyrologie and a group of scientists from Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
have been using x-rays and nuclear magnetic resonance to analyze the artifacts.
In 2009, the Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...
in conjunction with the French National Center for Scientific Research
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
imaged two intact Herculaneum papyri using X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to reveal the interior structures of the scrolls. The team heading the project estimated that if the scrolls were fully unwound it would be between long. The internal structure of the rolls was revealed to be extremely compact and convoluted, defeating the automatic unwrapping computer algorithms that the team had developed. Manual examination of small segments of the internal structure of the rolls proved more successful, unveiling the individual fibres of the papyrus. Unfortunately, no ink could be seen on the small samples imaged, because carbon-based inks are not visible on the carbonized scrolls. However, some scrolls were written with ink containing lead.
Virtual unrolling
According to Bukreeva et al. 2016, "The procedure of virtual unrolling can be divided into three main steps: volumetric scanning, segmentation, layered texture generation and restoration." Seales et al. 2005 and 2013 developed promising software that integrates functions of flattening and unrolling based on mass-spring surface simulations. Samko et al. 2014 proposed algorithms to solve problems of touching points between adjacent sheet layers.
In 2015, a team led by Dr. Vito Mocella, from the National Research Council's Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems (CNR-IMM),[Jonathan Web]
X-ray technique reads burnt Vesuvius scroll
BBC News, ''Science & Environment'', 20 January 2015 has announced that "... X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT) can reveal various letters hidden inside the precious papyri without unrolling them. ..This pioneering research opens up new prospects not only for the many papyri still unopened, but also for others that have not yet been discovered, perhaps including a second library of Latin papyri at a lower, as yet unexcavated level of the Villa." The microscopic relief of letters – a tenth of a millimeter – on the papyri seems to be enough to create a noticeable phase contrast with the XPCT scans. This team was even able to identify some writing on a still-rolled scroll. With the aim of making these scans cogent, a team is working with the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
and Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
to develop software which can sort through these displaced letters and figure out where they are located on the scroll.
Following the pioneering results of Dr. Mocella et al., in 2016 another team led by Dr. G. Ranocchia and Dr. A. Cedola announced encouraging results by means of the non-destructive Synchrotron X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT) technique.
In September 2016, a method pioneered by University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...
computer scientist W. Brent Seales was successfully used to unlock the text of a charred parchment from Israel, the En-Gedi Scroll
The En-Gedi Scroll is an ancient Hebrew parchment found in 1970 at Ein Gedi, Israel. Radiocarbon testing dates the scroll to the third or fourth century CE (210–390 CE), although paleographical considerations suggest that the scrolls may date b ...
. According to experts, this new method devised by Seales may make it possible to read the carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum.
The virtual unwrapping process begins with using a volumetric scan to scan the damaged scroll. These scans are non-invasive, and generate a 3D mapping which differentiates between the ink and the paper. The virtual unwrapping process is independent of which type of volumetric scan is used, which allows scientists to test out different scanning methods to find which distinguishes ink from paper best and which easily accommodates scanning upgrades. The only data needed for the virtual unwrapping process is this volumetric scan, so after this point the scroll was safely returned to its protective archive. In the case of the Herculaneum papyri, the volumetric scan used X-ray phase-contrast tomography, which proved most beneficial for the study of ancient papyri in a feasibility test conducted in 2015. This method of volumetric scanning is most beneficial for the Herculaneum papyri because these papyri have carbon-based ink, which will have the same material characteristics as the carbon-based papyrus. This makes it difficult to image using many of the traditional imaging techniques, which often use differences in the light absorption
Absorption may refer to:
Chemistry and biology
* Absorption (biology), digestion
**Absorption (small intestine)
*Absorption (chemistry), diffusion of particles of gas or liquid into liquid or solid materials
*Absorption (skin), a route by which ...
/ emission characteristics of different materials to create these volumetric scans. XPCT, on the other hand, examines the phase
Phase or phases may refer to:
Science
*State of matter, or phase, one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist
*Phase (matter), a region of space throughout which all physical properties are essentially uniform
* Phase space, a mathematic ...
of x-ray radiation after it emerges from the scroll to determine its composition. Because the ink is raised relative to the papyrus, the radiation will be traveling in the material of the scroll slightly longer when it passes through a spot with ink than when it passes through a spot with a blank space. This means that when the radiation emerges from the paper, its phase will be slightly different than that of the empty space, allowing researchers to distinguish ink-covered spots from blank spots. While this technique does allow researchers to visualize places with ink, it is much less clear than techniques such as CT scans which distinguish between different materials because slight changes (thinner ink, thicker papyrus, folds in the papyrus) all contribute to noise in the volumetric scan.
The volumetric scan allows the computer to associate the composition of the scroll with corresponding positions, called voxel
In 3D computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a 2D bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position (i.e. coordinates) explicitly encoded with their values. Ins ...
s or volume-pixels. The goal of the virtual unwrapping process is to determine the layered structure of the scroll and try to peel back each layer while keeping track of which voxel is being peeled and what composition it corresponds to. By transforming the voxels from a 3D volumetric scan to a 2D image, the writing on this inside is revealed to the viewer. This process happens in three steps: segmentation, texturing and flattening.
Segmentation
The first stage of the virtual unwrapping process, segmentation, involves identifying geometric models for the structures within the virtual scan of the scroll. Because of the extensive damage, the parchment has become deformed and no longer has a clearly cylindrical geometry. Instead, some portions may look planar, some conical, some triangular, etc. Therefore, the most efficient way to assign a geometry to the layer is to do so in a piecewise fashion. Rather than modeling the complex geometry of the entire layer of the scroll, the piecewise model breaks each layer into more regular shapes that are easy to work with. This makes it easy to virtually lift off each piece of the layer one at a time. Because each voxel is ordered, peeling off each layer will preserve the continuity of the scroll structure.
Texturing
The second stage, texturing, focuses on identifying intensity values that correspond with each voxel using texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for mapping a texture on a computer-generated graphic. Texture here can be high frequency detail, surface texture, or color.
History
The original technique was pioneered by Edwin Catmull in 1974.
Texture mapping ...
. From the volumetric scan, each voxel has a corresponding composition. After virtually peeling off the layers during the segmentation process, the texturing step matches the voxels of each geometric piece to their corresponding compositions so that an observer is able to see the text written on each piece. In ideal cases, the scanned volume will match perfectly with the surface of each geometric piece and yield perfectly rendered text, but there are often small errors in the segmentation process that generate noise in the texturing process. Because of this, the texturing process usually includes nearest-neighbor interpolation texture filtering
In computer graphics, texture filtering or texture smoothing is the method used to determine the texture color for a texture mapped pixel, using the colors of nearby texels (pixels of the texture). There are two main categories of texture filtering ...
to reduce the noise and sharpen the lettering.
Flattening
After segmentation and texturing, each piece of the virtually deconstructed scroll is ordered and has its corresponding text visualized on its surface. This is, in practice, enough to ‘read’ the inside of the scroll, but for the arts and antiquities world, it is often best to convert this to a 2D flat image to demonstrate what the scroll’s parchment would have looked like if they could physically unravel without damage. This requires the virtual unwrapping process to include a step that converts the curved 3D geometric pieces into flat 2D planes. To do so, the virtual unwrapping models the points on the surface of each 3D piece as masses connected by springs where the springs will come to rest only when the 3D pieces are perfectly flat. This technique is inspired by the mass-spring systems traditionally used to model deformation.
After segmenting, textualizing, and flattening the scroll to obtain 2D text fragments, the last step is a merge step meant to reconcile each individual segment to visualize the unwrapped parchment as a whole. This involves two parts: texture merging and mesh merging.
Texture Merging
Texture merging aligns the textures from each segment to create a composite. This process is fast and gives feedback on the quality of the segmentation and alignment of each piece. While this is good enough to create a basic image of what the scroll looks like, there are some distortions which arise because each segment is individually flattened. Therefore, this is the first step in the merging process, used to check if the segmentation, texturing, and flattening processes were done correctly, but does not produce a final result.
Mesh Merging
Mesh merging is more precise and is the final step in visualizing the unwrapped scroll. This type of merging recombines each point on the surface of each segment with the corresponding point on its neighbor segment to remove the distortions due to individual flattening. This step also re-flattens and re-textures the image to create the final visualization of the unwrapped scroll, and is computationally expensive compared to the texture merging process detailed above.
Using each of these steps, the computer is able to transform the voxels from the 3D volumetric scan and their corresponding density brightnesses to a 2D virtually unwrapped image of the text inside. These techniques, while successful at isolating the layers of the papyri, had difficulty detecting text clearly due to the complex geometry of the sheets, such as the criss-cross structure of the papyrus fibres and the sheets, pleats, holes, tears, and contamination from the extensive damage. One potential source of error might be the 3D volumetric scan itself or the flattening procedure used to read it since the algorithms are not able to perfectly prevent distortions in the reading of these papyri.
Seales presented in 2018 readability of parts of a Herculaneum papyri (P.Herc. 118) from the Bodleian Libraries
The Bodleian Libraries are a collection of 28 libraries that serve the University of Oxford in England, including the Bodleian Library itself, as well as many other (but not all) central and faculty libraries. As of the 2016–17 year, the librari ...
, at Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, which was given by the King Ferdinand of Naples
Ferdinand I (12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825) was the King of the Two Sicilies from 1816, after his restoration following victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Before that he had been, since 1759, Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinand I ...
to the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
in 1810. The imaging method Seales used involved a hand-held 3-D scanner called an Artec Space Spider
Artec Consultants Inc, is an acoustics design and theater planning firm located in New York City. The company was founded by Frederick Russell Johnson in 1970. In 2013, Artec was integrated into the acoustic design and theater consulting prac ...
.[ The same year he demonstrated readability success of another Herculaneum scroll, with help of the particle accelerator ]Diamond Light Source
Diamond Light Source (or Diamond) is the UK's national synchrotron light source science facility located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. Its purpose is to produce intense beams of light whose special characteristic ...
, through a powerful x-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
s imaging technique, letter ink which contains trace amounts of lead were detected. This technique could possibly open the door in reading the remaining unopened 500 Herculaneum scrolls.[ Prior to this he demonstrated successful virtual unrolling without detecting ink on Herculaneum scrolls.
]
Significance
Until the middle of the 18th century, the only papyri known were a few survivals from medieval times. Most likely, these rolls would never have survived the Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
and would have crumbled or been lost. Indeed, all these rolls have come from the only surviving library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
from antiquity that exists in its entirety.
These papyri contain a large number of Greek philosophical texts. Large parts of Books XIV, XV, XXV, and XXVIII of the magnum opus of Epicurus
Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced ...
, '' On Nature'' and works by early followers of Epicurus are also represented among the papyri. Of the rolls, 44 have been identified as the work of Philodemus of Gadara
Philodemus of Gadara ( grc-gre, Φιλόδημος ὁ Γαδαρεύς, ''Philodēmos'', "love of the people"; c. 110 – prob. c. 40 or 35 BC) was an Arabic Epicurean philosopher and poet. He studied under Zeno of Sidon in Athens, before moving ...
, an Epicurean
Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism. Later its main opponent became Stoicism.
Few writings by Epi ...
philosopher and poet. The manuscript "PHerc.Paris.2" contains part of Philodemus' ''On Vices and Virtues''.
The Stoic
Stoic may refer to:
* An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy
*STOIC, a programming language
* ''Stoic'' (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll
* ''Stoic'' (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain
*' ...
philosopher Chrysippus
Chrysippus of Soli (; grc-gre, Χρύσιππος ὁ Σολεύς, ; ) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia, but moved to Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes. When Clean ...
is attested to have written over 700 works, all of them lost, with the exception of a few fragments quoted by other authors.[John Sellars, ''Stoicism''. University of California Press, 2007. - p. 8] Segments of his works ''On Providence'' and ''Logical Questions'' were found among the papyri; a third work of his may have been recovered from the charred rolls.["The first of Chrysippus' partially preserved two or three works is his ''Logical Questions'', contained in PHerc. 307 ... The second work is his ''On Providence'', preserved in PHerc 1038 and 1421 ... A third work, most likely by Chrysippus is preserved in PHerc. 1020," ]
Parts of a poem on the Battle of Actium
The Battle of Actium was a naval battle fought between a maritime fleet of Octavian led by Marcus Agrippa and the combined fleets of both Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII Philopator. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC in the Ionian Sea, nea ...
have also survived in the library.
In May 2018, it was reported that fragments of the lost work ''Histories'' by Seneca the Elder
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder (; c. 54 BC – c. 39 AD), also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rheto ...
have been found on a papyrus scroll (PHerc. 1067).
Additional images
Tesoro letterario di Ercolano p29.jpg
Tesoro letterario di Ercolano p40.jpg
Tesoro letterario di Ercolano p44.jpg
Tesoro letterario di Ercolano p52.jpg
Tesoro letterario di Ercolano p72a.jpg
Tesoro letterario di Ercolano p72b.jpg
Tesoro letterario di Ercolano p76a.jpg
Tesoro letterario di Ercolano p76b.jpg
See also
* Conservation issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum
* Friends of Herculaneum Society
*Ancient Greek literature
Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are ...
*Villa of the Papyri
The Villa of the Papyri ( it, Villa dei Papiri, also known as ''Villa dei Pisoni'' and in early excavation records as the ''Villa Suburbana'') was an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after ...
*Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79
Of the many eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, a major stratovolcano in southern Italy, the best-known is its eruption in 79 AD, which was one of the deadliest in European history. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD is one of the best-known in h ...
*Ercolano
Ercolano () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania of Southern Italy. It lies at the western foot of Mount Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples, just southeast of the city of Naples. The medieval town of Resina () was bu ...
*En-Gedi Scroll
The En-Gedi Scroll is an ancient Hebrew parchment found in 1970 at Ein Gedi, Israel. Radiocarbon testing dates the scroll to the third or fourth century CE (210–390 CE), although paleographical considerations suggest that the scrolls may date b ...
References
Further reading
* Armstrong, David. 2011. "Epicurean Virtues, Epicurean Friendship: Cicero vs. The Herculaneum Papyri." In ''Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition.'' Edited by Jeffrey Fish and Kirk R. Sanders. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press
*
*
* Houston, George W. 2013. "The Non-Philodemus Book Collection in the Villa of the Papyri." In ''Ancient Libraries'' Edited by Jason König, Katerina Oikonomopoulou, Greg Woolf, 183-208. Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press.
* Janko, Richard. 1993. Philodemus Resartus: Progress in Reconstructing the Philosophical Papyri from Herculaneum. In ''Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy: VII, 1991.'' Edited by John J. Cleary. Lanham, Md. & London: University Press of America.
*
* {{cite journal , last1 = Kleve , first1 = Knut , year = 1996 , title = How to Read an Illegible Papyrus: Towards an Edition of PHerc. 78, Caecilius Statius, Obolostates sive faenerator , journal = Cronache Ercolanesi , volume = 26 , pages = 5–14
* Seales, W. Brent, Jim Griffioen, and David Jacobs. 2011. "Virtual Conservation: Experience with Micro-CT and Manuscripts." In ''Eikonopoiia: Digital Imaging of Ancient Textual Heritage: Proceedings of the International Conference, Helsinki, 28–29 November 2010.'' Edited by Vesa Vahtikari, Mika Hakkarainen, and Antti Nurminen, 81–88. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.
* Sider, David. 2005. ''The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum.'' Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum
* Zarmakoupi, Mantha, ed. 2010. ''The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum: Archaeology, Reception, and Digital Reconstruction.'' Berlin: de Gruyter.
* Vassallo, Christian. 2021. ''The Presocratics at Herculaneum: A Study of Early Greek Philosophy in the Epicurean Tradition.'' Berlin - Boston: de Gruyter.
Turenko, Vitalii. 2022. ''New edition of Рresocratic fragments: materials of Herculaneum papyrin.'' Sententiae, 41(2), 166–176.
External links
Bodleian Library MS. Gr. class. b. 1 (P)/1-12
Rawson, C., ed. Out of the Ashes: Recovering the Lost Library of Herculaneum. DVD. 2003. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University.
BYU Herculaneum Project Honored with Mommsen Prize
Wüerzburg Center for Epicurean Studies
* Porter, James I.
Hearing Voices: The Herculaneum Papyri and Classical Scholarship
UCLA Department of Classics: The Philodemus Project
The Friends of Herculaneum Society
An incomplete list of papyri from Herculaneum with high resolution photographs
A Guide to Editions and Translations of the Principal Works Discovered at Herculaneum and Related Texts
Papyrology
1st-century manuscripts
Herculaneum (ancient city)
Archaeological discoveries in Italy
Papyrus collections