AI reads ancient scroll buried by Vesuvius eruption

The group used AI to help distinguish ink from papyrus and work out the faint and almost unreadable Greek lettering through pattern recognition. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: Three researchers on Feb 5 won a US$700,000 (RM3.33mil) prize for using artificial intelligence to read a 2,000-year-old scroll that was scorched in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The Herculaneum papyri consist of about 800 rolled up Greek scrolls that were carbonised during the 79 CE volcanic eruption that buried the ancient Roman town of Pompeii, according to the organisers of the "Vesuvius Challenge."