Scientists offer 1.3 million Brazilian reais to decipher the Herculaneum manuscript

group of scientists launched an initiative with a $250,000 prize. (equivalent to 1.3 million reais) for those who managed to decipher a collection of manuscripts that are about 2000 years old which burned down during the eruption of Vesuvius. These manuscripts were part of the library of Herculaneum, a city destroyed in 79 AD. volcanic eruption that also destroyed the city of Pompeii. After the eruption, hundreds of texts from the library of Herculaneum were buried and burned by the ash and gases emanating from Vesuvius.

Charred manuscripts from the library of Herculaneum were discovered in 1752 in a villa near the Gulf of Naples believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. However, the contents of these documents remained a mystery, as scientists considered their discovery too risky due to their fragility.

Now, a team of researchers has launched a competition to solve the mystery, demonstrating that an artificial intelligence system can extract letters and symbols from high-resolution x-ray images of the scrolls. A machine learning algorithm was trained to read both the ink on the surface of the documents and the hidden layers, making it possible to read these manuscripts that had remained hidden for centuries.

“We’ll show you how to read the ink of Herculaneum“, lead researcher Professor Brent Seals, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, told The Guardian.This gives us the opportunity to reveal 50, 70, maybe 80% of the entire collection. We have built a boat. Now we want everyone to come on board and sail with us.“

The researchers make the software they used and thousands of 3D x-ray images of two rolled scrolls and three papyrus fragments to help others decipher the documents.

Duel of teams of explorers

They hope that research groups around the world will help them improve their AI software and reach their goal. “We are running a competition to increase our ability to extract more and more text.“Sills added.

Each research group will compete for a $150,000 prize. This prize will be awarded to the first person to be able to read four passages of text from the inner layers of the scrolls by the end of this year.

In addition, additional prizes of $100,000 will be available to those who can detect ink on parchments from 3D x-ray images.

The researchers launched this competition to encourage other scientists to help them decipher the Herculaneum manuscripts, which were charred about 2,000 years ago. The cash prize offered could be a great incentive for participants who want to be recognized for their ability to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of ancient history.

Source: Guardian

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