AI helps read ancient scrolls buried by Vesuvius

The Vesuvius Challenge announced on June 25 that researchers used AI to read two ancient scrolls buried by volcanic ash without unrolling them. The scrolls, about 2,000 years old, were buried after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. For PHerc. 1667, they read about 1.5 meters of Greek text across 20 columns; for PHerc. 172, they recovered over 70 columns. This project uses imaging and machine learning to study scrolls from the Vesuvius eruption, offering new insights into ancient history.