AI reads an ancient manuscript
In 2024, an international group of University professors and students made a sensational discovery. They managed to identify about 2,000 letters in ancient Roman manuscripts. The project was called The Vesuvius Challenge, and it aimed to find a method to read the manuscripts using AI (artificial intelligence). It was challenging, as most of the manuscripts were seriously damaged.
The story behind the manuscripts was mysterious. It started on a tragic summer day in 79 B.C., when Roman cities suffered a volcanic eruption. The ash and fire coming from Mount Vesuvius buried thousands of people and their houses. The villa, once owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law, sank into the hot lava too. There was a huge library of papyrus manuscripts inside, and they seemed to be lost forever.
However, some of the manuscripts did not burn. The scrolls were buried in the solid volcanic lava, dried out and carbonised by the heat, which prevented the bacteria from getting inside. Amazingly, after staying underground for about 1,700 years, the manuscripts were found again.
In the 18th century, an Italian farmworker noticed something unusual while digging a well. The archaeologists started digging and found a marble pavement and statues. Further excavations revealed a large collection of ancient manuscripts. Unfortunately, the attempts to open the scrolls destroyed many of them. It was impossible to read and study the artefacts as most of the manuscripts were badly burnt and, when touched, crumbled in the hands, turning into ash and dust. Thus, until the 21st century, the manuscripts were kept in museums. The scientists did not touch them to prevent any additional harm, so the texts remained a complete mystery.
AI came as a game-changer. It enabled the scientists to look inside the manuscripts without any physical contact, which was a remarkable breakthrough! Dr. Brent Seales, a computer science professor, is the key figure in The Vesuvius Challenge project. He and his team of AI developers (some of whom are students) virtually unwrap the scrolls, recover the pieces of the texts and decode them. Now, the challenge is to read the whole texts of the scrolls, and Dr. Seales believes that, with AI, it will soon be possible.
So far, most of the opened scrolls contain philosophical texts. They were written in Greek and prove that ancient philosophers promoted quite progressive ideas. For instance, as early as in the 4th century B.C. they believed that everything in nature is made of atoms, which are too small to be seen. The decoded manuscripts will definitely make a huge impact on our vision of the past. Even more important, AI has become a powerful instrument to help scientists solve old and new mysteries.
13. The Vesuvius Challenge team was created for archaeological digging in Italy.
14. It was Julius Caesar's father-in-law who started the library of papyrus manuscripts.
15. The manuscripts survived underground due to the absence of bacteria.
16. Until the 21st century, lots of the scrolls were kept unread.
17. The Vesuvius Challenge project is still in progress.
18. Professor Seales has worked on the Vesuvius Challenge alone.
19. Some of the decoded manuscripts contained drawings of atoms.