Posted on 02/07/2024 8:24:15 AM PST by SunkenCiv
The famous Herculaneum scroll, charred papyrus found buried by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD, has been deciphered by artificial intelligence.
The feat was achieved by students in the Vesuvius challenge, which used algorithms to scan the artifact that would otherwise had been destroyed if unraveled by human hands.
The winning team read more than 2,000 'never-before-seen' texts that discussed sources of pleasure, such as music, the taste of capers and the color purple.
The three students, from Egypt, Switzerland and the US, share a $700,000 grand prize for uncovering hundreds of words across more than 15 columns of text, corresponding to around five percent of an entire scroll.
The Vesuvius Challenge was launched in March 2023 by Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, and Silicon Valley backers.
At the time, Seales released thousands of 3D images of two rolled-up scrolls, as well as an AI program that had been trained to read letters in the marks left by ink.
Shortly after, Luke Farritor from Nebraska and Youssef Nader from Egypt independently revealed the same word hidden within the heart of the sealed manuscript - 'πορφύραc' - meaning purple dye or clothes of purple.
And the pair shared a $40,000 prize.
However, Monday's announcement revealed the grand prize winners, which also included Nadaer, Farritor, but in addition to Julian Schilliger, a Swiss robotics student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I wholeheartedly agree.
Throughout the buried towns of the Bay of Naples, tin roof rusted.
Epstein didn’t kill himself
The linked article in nature gives a much better explanation of how the scanning and deciphering process worked.
Its nonetheless simply amazing that computer-science students could train an AI model to form the patterns of a CT scan into letters and words.
The Unique Heritage of Herculaneum
snip
Due to the direction of the winds on the first day of the eruption, Pompeii was more severely affected. Many of the roofs collapsed under the weight of the falling ash and pumice stone, crushing all those who had tried to take refuge indoors and destroying most of the contents of the homes.
In the case of Herculaneum, the incandescent gas that killed the inhabitants evaporated rapidly and the heavy blanket of semi-liquid lava that covered the city carbonised, preserving many items of organic matter.
A particularly precious find was the collection of 1,800 scrolls found in the library of the palatial residence known as the Villa of the Papyri, which belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Pisone.
The scrolls were preserved because they had been sealed off in a totally dry environment under 30 metres of solidified volcanic mud. Unfortunately, our guide told us, many of the manuscripts were so fragile that they crumbled into dust when they were touched.
Those that have survived are in the highly specialised restoration laboratory in the Archeological Museum of Naples. For security reasons, the Villa dei Papiri is not open to the public.
A glimpse of the magnificence that was Herculaneum.
Hahahahahahaha!
Two posts in! Love it...:)
It is amazing to realize that the “ancients” were really no different from modern culture, only separated by technology. Rome was the epitome of technology for its day. Society then, survived without refridgeration, (which I claim is the greatest invention of all time versus flight and automobiles).
What do you all think is the single greatest invention of all mankind?
Radio?
Printing Press?
Vaccines?
Internal Combustion Engine?
Compass?
iPhone?
Have at it. It is the simpliest of questions, yet a difficult answer. I posed the question to my wife and she had difficulty coming up with the answer.
How did I arrive at refridgeration as the greatest invention of all mankind? My faither told me when I was a little one. If he said it, it must be true!
Thanks P. There’s been speculation that, since the House of the Papyri has more than one storey (that somehow wasn’t noticed until fairly recent years) there could be another, untouched library.
Meanwhile, putting together fragments of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri using AI seems like it may also be worthwhile.
So we can decode these scrolls but not Hillary/Epstein/etc emails….,,
WWG1WGA!
Very interesting & worthwhile read, thanks for sharing. 🙂 👍
Lets hope it is better at the right answer than Chat GPT.
Cooking.
Nothing else is so universal among people and has changed us as much.
Anywhere you find humans you find cooking.
My pleasure.
:^)
Writing.
Do you realize how much interest those guys owe by now? Not to mention back taxes.
“ What do you all think is the single greatest invention of all mankind.”
Modern water treatment.
This did more to extend the human lifespan than anything else.
L
Imagine the overdue book fees that have accumulated on these scrolls!
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