X-ray technology and artificial intelligence — along with the discovery of lead in the ink of fragments of a collection of ancient Roman scrolls — could soon help scientists read long-lost texts buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE, according to a study published September 16, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Douglas Seiler, an affiliate of the University of California Berkeley, USA, Jacob Michael LaManna from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA, David Kreimer from University of California Berkeley, USA, and colleagues.
The Herculaneum papyri scrolls were discovered in the ruins of the town of Herculaneum, near Naples, Italy. During the volcanic eruption, the scrolls were covered by 65-70 feet of rock and ash, "carbonizing" them in the extreme heat and making them very brittle. While some of the scrolls have been opened and read, revealing previously unknown writings by Epicurus and other ancient thinkers, many have proven too fragile to study.
Recently, AI and x-ray tomography have allowed researchers to virtually "unroll" some of the scrolls and read some of the text. That said, x-rays can have a hard time distinguishing the text since the ink and papyrus are made of similar materials, carbon. But some of the Herculaneum scroll letters have been found to contain lead. Since x-rays can more easily distinguish between papyrus and lead, the authors of this new paper suggest scanning the scrolls for lead and then attempting to virtually unroll those that contain lead.
To test this, the team recreated some carbonized scrolls by writing on new papyrus using ink with various concentrations of lead, then heating the scrolls in a high temperature furnace, carbonizing them. X-ray fluorescence was able to detect lead in the scrolls at each lead concentration level — and x-ray tomography, combined with a custom software program, allowed the team to re-read some of the words they had written on these scrolls.
These results demonstrate a new potential opportunity to finally read some of the more complex Herculaneum scrolls. In addition, the team's method of recreating carbonized scrolls could help improve the "unrolling" algorithms. By knowing what's written inside these recreated carbonized scrolls, researchers could train an algorithm to correctly decipher the text inside — possibly improving the algorithm's success at reading ancient texts as well.
Douglas Seiler adds: "It's amazing what you can get electrons to do."
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4cvYsci
Citation: Seiler D, LaManna JM, McOsker M, Kreimer D, Daugherty MC, Dopke J (2026) A model carbonized papyrus scroll opens a novel path to identifying readable scrolls of the Herculaneum Library. PLoS One 21(9): e0353485. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0353485
Author countries: USA, UK.
Funding: The work conducted at NIST, was funded (just use of equipment & staff) by the Department of Commerce, Radiation Physics Division, and the Center for Neutron Research.
