Researchers say they have digitally read an entire carbonized Herculaneum scroll for the first time

A new preprint reports that researchers have recovered the text of a full Herculaneum scroll using noninvasive imaging and computational analysis. The project also published related code and data, extending the Vesuvius Challenge effort to read fragile carbonized papyri without unrolling them.

This marks a major step for virtual unwrapping, showing that AI-assisted imaging can move from isolated fragments to full ancient texts. If validated and scaled, the approach could unlock large archives of unread manuscripts while creating reusable tools for cultural heritage research.