AI helps decipher ancient texts from Vesuvio

Researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences developed a new artificial intelligence to reconstruct missing text within ancient papyrus fragments.

A papyrus scroll, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost 2000 years ago, served as a test case. Scientists used computer tomography to view the scroll’s interior without unrolling the fragile material, but gaps remained even when letters became visible.

In one passage from the philosopher Philodemos, the AI helped fill in missing parts of a crucial word, using only the beginning and end letters. The tool aims to unlock millions of incomplete ancient texts.