First text read from ancient scroll after 2000 years
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Erwin Nieuwlaar of the Netherlands won a $50,000 prize for identifying the first readable text within the carbonized PHerc. 343 scroll, which was buried in AD 79 in a library near Naples, Italy.
The scroll is part of the Vesuvius Challenge, an open science project aiming to virtually unwrap and read ancient papyri. Nieuwlaar used the challenge’s open-source tools to trace the scroll’s surface and applied existing ink detection models, ultimately revealing ten legible Greek letters within a four-square-centimeter section.
Papyrologists believe the discovered sequence, πα̣ντ̣ογιν̣ομ̣, likely belongs to the phrase “everything that happens/is generated.” This success follows earlier advancements in the project, including the virtual unwrapping of another scroll, PHerc. 1667, and the detection of ink in PHerc. 1447, signalling growing momentum within the research community. Other researchers also submitted partial readings from PHerc. 343. Gabriel Munoz Mendonca found sequences that, while not meeting the ten-character threshold, offered potential Greek text.
Ben Kyles and colleagues, using a different unwrapping method, identified letters suggesting a possible reference to music, a topic found in other scrolls from the same collection. The Vesuvius Challenge continues, with researchers seeking to uncover more of the scroll’s contents.
