Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have devised an extraordinary method to read 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scrolls, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, without damaging them. Led by retired inventor Douglas Seiler, the team produced modern scrolls mimicking the physical properties of the ancient rolls and carbonized them in a laboratory setting. This work is seen as a critical step toward digitally deciphering lost philosophical and literary texts from the ancient library, which are otherwise impossible to open.
Ancient Experiment with Star Wars Quotes
As part of the research, traditional papyri and reed pens from Egypt, along with traditional lampblack ink from Japan, were used [1]. Seiler had high school students write Star Wars quotes, passages from the Bible, and excerpts from 1960s science fiction series on these papyri [3]. These prepared modern scrolls were then heated at high temperatures in an oxygen-free steel furnace to carbonize them, just like the ancient scrolls in Herculaneum [4].
The Secret of Lead in the Ink
To detect the writings within the carbonized scrolls using X-ray tomography, scientists added lead nitrate in varying proportions to the ink [2]. The study, published in the journal PLOS One, demonstrated that the lead traces from the ink could be clearly distinguished in scans even after the papyrus had carbonized [2]. The researchers state that this method offers an excellent test model for developing technologies to digitally open and read ancient scrolls [5]. This could potentially lead to the deciphering of other difficult-to-read sections of the ancient library buried under the ashes of Vesuvius [6].