Researchers have used artificial intelligence and advanced imaging to read the complete text, for the first time, of a sealed Herculaneum scroll that remained closed since it was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago.
The achievement marks a breakthrough in the effort to recover texts from the only surviving library of the ancient Greco-Roman world. Scholars say the technology could now help decipher hundreds of unopened scrolls that have remained unread since the Roman town of Herculaneum was destroyed alongside Pompeii in A.D. 79.
AI unlocks a sealed ancient scroll
The scrolls were carbonized by intense heat during the eruption. They became so fragile that any attempt to physically open them would destroy the papyrus.
Instead, researchers used high-resolution X-ray scans, artificial intelligence, and advanced computer algorithms to virtually unwrap the tightly rolled manuscripts and identify traces of ink hidden inside. The process allowed researchers to read the complete scroll without causing any physical damage.
The breakthrough is the latest achievement of the Vesuvius Challenge, an international initiative that brings together experts in artificial intelligence, computer science, and papyrology to recover texts from the buried library.
Project opens data and offers a $1 million prize
To speed up future discoveries, the project announced it will make all of its data, computer code, and digital models of the Herculaneum papyri freely available online. Organizers also launched a $1 million prize for the first person or team to completely read another unopened scroll.
Brent Seales, a computer science professor at the University of Kentucky and one of the project’s founders, said the milestone would have seemed impossible only a year ago.
“Just a year ago it would have been crazy for any of us to believe that there would be a complete scroll read completely non-invasively with hundreds of columns of text,” Seales said during a conference streamed from Naples.
He said the success demonstrates that the technology works and expressed confidence that researchers will eventually recover the contents of every scroll in the collection.
Hundreds of scrolls remain unread
Researchers have scanned about 45 scrolls and scroll fragments so far. More than 600 unopened scrolls remain in storage, while large sections of the Villa of the Papyri, where they were discovered, have yet to be excavated. Archaeologists believe more manuscripts could still be buried beneath the site.
Researchers have read the complete text of a sealed Herculaneum scroll for the first time using AI and advanced imaging. The ancient Greek manuscript survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago. pic.twitter.com/EjHhExJ7ix
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) June 25, 2026
The Vesuvius Challenge has already awarded $1.8 million in prize money for research related to reading the ancient texts. Nat Friedman, a U.S. technology executive and founding sponsor of the project, said the latest success is only the beginning. He said researchers expect major improvements in the AI algorithms and ink detection methods used to decode the scrolls, and encouraged more computing experts to join the effort.
New texts reveal ancient philosophy
Among the latest discoveries are 70 newly recovered columns from On Vices, Book 1, a Greek-language philosophical work attributed to the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus. The findings provide one of the largest newly recovered passages from the Herculaneum library, whose surviving scrolls are written primarily in ancient Greek despite being discovered in a Roman villa in southern Italy.
Researchers also recovered nearly 1.5 meters (5 feet) of readable text across 20 columns from a scroll dated between 200 and 300 B.C., making it the oldest known Herculaneum scroll to be read through virtual unwrapping. The manuscript discusses ethics, the arts and human behavior.
The Herculaneum collection is considered one of the most important archaeological libraries ever discovered. Most scholars believe it belonged to the Villa of the Papyri, a luxurious Roman estate thought to have been owned by the family of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus.
The library contains hundreds of Greek-language philosophical works, many of them associated with the Epicurean school, offering a rare glimpse into intellectual life during the Roman era.
Researchers say progress is accelerating
Federica Nicolardi, the Vesuvius Challenge’s lead papyrologist, said the technology has transformed the study of the ancient manuscripts. Earlier methods required researchers to physically unwrap scrolls, often damaging them in the process. Virtual unwrapping now allows scholars to preserve the fragile artifacts while reading their contents.
Nicolardi said progress has accelerated dramatically. In the previous 24 hours alone, researchers virtually unwrapped the full length of another scroll, revealing about 140 columns of previously hidden text. Until recently, teams could recover only about 10% of a scroll’s columns.
“Literally last night, in front of Mount Vesuvius, something, or I should say everything, changed,” Nicolardi said.
Researchers believe the rapid advances in artificial intelligence could eventually unlock the contents of the hundreds of unopened scrolls still preserved from Herculaneum, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the literature, philosophy, and intellectual life of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.
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