AI decodes Vesuvius scrolls, revealing ancient philosophy lost nearly 2,000 years

Scientists have unveiled the contents of carbonized papyri from Herculaneum using artificial intelligence to virtually read scrolls too fragile to physically unroll. The breakthrough, announced by researchers at the University of Kentucky on Thursday, has recovered texts that have remained inaccessible since the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and pumice. The surviving portion of one scroll discusses stoic philosophy on ethics, the arts, human behaviour and theology—knowledge lost to history until now.

The charred papyri have sat in collections since an 18th-century archaeological dig uncovered a library of intact but unreadable scrolls. For centuries, scholars could not open or read them without destroying them. The AI method scans the scrolls and reconstructs the text by identifying faint traces of ink beneath layers of carbonization, allowing researchers to read the hidden writing without physical contact. According to NBC News, the recovered texts reveal philosophical takes that scholars had never before been able to access from this period.

The discovery carries particular weight for Campania, where Pompeii and Herculaneum remain among the world's most visited archaeological sites and a cornerstone of the region's cultural economy. The scrolls offer a rare window into the intellectual life of ordinary Romans before the catastrophe—not imperial decrees or official records, but personal philosophical reflection. The technique opens the possibility that thousands of other carbonized scrolls in collections worldwide may now be readable, potentially transforming our understanding of the ancient Mediterranean world.