The Revelation of the Charred Parchment

A development supported by Artificial Intelligence achieved it. He first read one from an ancient Herculaneum scroll. The revelation of the charred parchment was an exciting discovery.
Artificial Intelligence managed to extract a Greek word from a charred papyrus scroll. It appeared in a villa in the city of Herculaneum, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. A 21-year-old student was responsible for this breakthrough. An attempt is made to decipher a library that was supposed to be lost forever.
The word revealed was πορφύρας, which refers to the purple dye. It was a color closely linked to nobility and power. The papyrus scroll observed was found by workers in 1752. They unearthed 1,800 scrolls in total. It is presumed that they house literary and philosophical works from the 1st and 2nd centuries BC.

The revelation of the charred parchment was done with Artificial Intelligence.
The revelation of the charred parchment was done with Artificial Intelligence.

Technology to the rescue

The Herculaneum scrolls were reduced to fragile and charred fragments due to the heat and gases of the volcanic eruption. The workers of that time preserved them despite their condition. However, most of these scrolls have remained largely forgotten, classified as illegible curiosities. This changed with the help of technology, enthusiastic researchers and prizes reaching up to a million dollars.
The Vesuvius Challenge is a global competition. Reward with cash prizes those who manage to recover texts that lie trapped in the charred layers. Machine learning techniques are used on digital images of the rolls. The challenge awarded its first prize to two competitors: an American student and another Egyptian graduate in Germany. Each one managed to decipher at least 10 letters on a scroll, including the word πορφύραc.

Several letters were distinguished
Several letters were distinguished.

Researchers Awards

The revelation of the charred parchment offers great possibilities. In the future all the others could be read. Currently, the $700,000 grand prize is still up for grabs. Whoever deciphers at least four different sections of two scrolls will be awarded.
Luke Farritor of the University of Nebraska developed a machine learning algorithm. He identified Greek letters in several lines of the scrolls. The young man trained a neural network to highlight the ink. He used subtle, small-scale differences in the texture of the papyrus. On October 12 it was announced that Farritor had won the $40,000 “First Letters” prize. He deciphered more than 10 characters in an area of ​​4 square centimeters on the parchment. Youssef Nader, another student, won a similar award.

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