READING ROLLED PAPYRI
       
       2023-10-13
       
       One of my favourite parts of my former role at the Bodleian Libraries was
       getting to work on exhibitions. Not just because it was varied and interesting
       work, but because it let me get up-close to remarkable artifacts that most
       people never even get the chance to see.
       
 (IMG) Miniature model of an exhibition space, constructed using painted blocks and laid-out on the floor of an exhibition space.
       
       A personal favourite of mine are the Herculaneum Papyri. These charred scrolls
       were part of a private library near Pompeii that was buried by the eruption of
       Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Rediscovered from 1752, these ~1,800 scrolls were
       distributed to academic institutions around the world, with the majority
       residing in Naples' Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III.
       
 (IMG) Under-construction exhibition including a highly-reflective suit worn by volcano field researchers.
       
       As you might expect of ancient scrolls that got buried, baked, and then left
       to rot, they're pretty fragile. That didn't stop Victorian era researchers
       trying a variety of techniques to gently unroll them and read what was inside.
       
 (IMG) Blackened fragments of an unrolled papyrus.
       
       Like many others, what I love about the Herculaneum Papyri is the air of
       mystery. Each could be anything from a lost religious text to, I don't know,
       somebody's to-do list ("buy milk, arrange for annual service of chariot, don't
       forget to renew volcano insurance..."). (For more-serious academic speculation
       about the potential value of the scrolls, Richard Carrier's got you covered.)
       
       In recent years, we've tried "virtually unrolling" the scrolls using a variety
       of related technologies. And - slowly - we're getting there.
       
       X-ray tomography is amazing, but it's hampered by the fact that the ink and
       paper have near-equivalent transparency to x-rays. Plus, all the other
       problems. But new techniques are helping to overcome them.
       
       So imagine my delight when this week, for the first time ever, a complete word
       was extracted from one of the carbonised, still-rolled-up scrolls from
       Herculaneum. Something that would have seemed inconceivable to the historians
       who first discovered and catalogued the scrolls is now possible, thanks to
       their careful conservation over the years along with the steady advance of
       technology.
       
 (IMG) Computer-assisted photograph showing visible letters on a rolled scroll, with highlighting showing those that can be deciphered, forming a word.
       
       LINKS
       
 (HTM) My blog post about leaving the Bodleian Libraries when I began working at Automattic
 (HTM) Bodleian Libraries
 (HTM) My blog post, "QR Codes of the Bodleian", in which I mention the Herculaneum Papyri
 (HTM) Herculaneum Papyri on Bodleian Treasures website, which I helped produce an earlier version of
 (HTM) Bodleian Libraries' exhibition on volcanoes
 (HTM) YouTube clip showing the Red Dwarf scene in which a lost religious text is discovered (and turns out to be the "missing first page of the bible")
 (HTM) "Twelve Books at Herculaneum That Could Change History", by Richard Carrier
 (HTM) Article: "First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by 21yo computer science student", from the Vesuvius Challenge website