Today, x-raying is the method of choice to read ancient scrolls without opening them and potentially causing damage.
In 2019, Dr. Brent Seales and other researchers made a breakthrough by augmenting their X-rays with a particle accelerator to scan two scrolls.
Earlier this year, those X-rays were run through a machine-learning model to make the ink more legible.
Luke Farritor, an undergrad at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Space-X intern, used his old GTX 1070 to train an AI model to detect "crackle patterns," which indicate where an ink character used to be.
Herculaneum was first discovered in 1738, and in 1750 King of Naples Charles VII ordered an excavation of the site, which led to the discovery of the so-called Villa of the Papyri.
The Villa, which may have been owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, contained sculptures, frescoes, and the eponymous scrolls of Herculaneum.
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