Latest: Secrets of ancient Herculaneum scroll deciphered by AI
ROME — Buried in ash after Mount Vesuvius’ cataclysmic eruption in 79 A.D., hundreds of papyrus scrolls have kept their secrets hidden for centuries. But archeologists have now been able to decipher some of the ancient text with the help of artificial intelligence.Discovered in the ruins of a villa thought to have been owned by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the Herculaneum papyri are a collection of around 1,000 scrolls that were carbonized during the eruption, along with thousands of other relics.Found by a farmworker in the 18th century, they are named after the place where they were buried, Herculaneum — an ancient Roman town to the south of Pompeii that was also destroyed by the blast.Previous attempts to unlock their secrets have failed because most...