# Reading the Herculaneum scrolls

- kind: problem
- status: partial
- year: 1752

**Statement.** Can the carbonized scrolls buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE be read without unrolling them?

X-ray scans plus machine-learning ink detection revealed the word 'purple' in 2023, and the 2023 Grand Prize read about 2,000 characters of an unknown philosophical text, probably by Philodemus. It was a public prize with a clear verifier, and hundreds of scrolls remain.

Closed 2023–2024, Vesuvius Challenge: first passages read from inside a sealed scroll.

## What would settle it

Legible text confirmed by papyrologists

## Prize

Vesuvius Challenge prizes

## Sources

- [Vesuvius Challenge](https://scrollprize.org/)
- [Wikipedia: Herculaneum papyri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum_papyri)

[Scripts and the past](/wiki/Space:scripts-and-the-past.md) · [Society](/wiki/Continent:society.md)

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