Last year the Vesuvius Challenge announced the successful reading of the first verses contained in the ancient scrolls of Herculeneum which burned due to the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano. The city of Herculeneum, which is located next to Pompeii, is the location of thousands of ancient scrolls that have been preserved despite being buried for over 2000 years. Now the Vesuvius Challenge announced the first 15 columns of one of the scrolls can finally be read and translated.
The translated section is believed to be the work of the philosopher Philodemus containing writings on music, food and how to enjoy life. The success of reading the first layer of this scroll opens up the opportunity for the 1800 Herculeneum papyrus rolls found in 1752 to also be read. The part that can be read so far is only 5% of the entire scroll that is still rolled.
The Vesuvius Challenge also announced three winners who used machine learning and scanning techniques to read layers of papyrus that had burned to charcoal. Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger shared the $700,000 top prize for solving a nearly 300-year-old archaeological problem. Nader and Farritor were previously awarded the First Letters Prize because they were the first to develop a technique for reading the alphabet hidden in scrolls.