NIST Adapts Battery Algorithm to Read 2,000-Year-Old Herculaneum Scrolls as X-Ray Spectrometer Flags Lead Ink
Updated
Updated · NIST · Sep 18
NIST Adapts Battery Algorithm to Read 2,000-Year-Old Herculaneum Scrolls as X-Ray Spectrometer Flags Lead Ink
3 articles · Updated · NIST · Sep 18
Summary
NIST researchers proposed a two-step process to decipher Herculaneum scrolls: use an X-ray spectrometer to identify lead-containing ink, then apply adapted virtual-unrolling software to read the text.
The approach targets a core obstacle in the 2,000-year-old papyri: carbon-based ink is hard to distinguish from carbonized papyrus in CT scans, while lead salts produce a much stronger X-ray signal.
Cyrus Daugherty reworked within about a week an algorithm first built to unroll lithium-ion battery layers, allowing it to handle crushed, fused papyrus layers instead of a neat spiral.
Tests on replica scrolls baked to mimic Vesuvius damage let the team compare results against known text; the software deciphered the writing in days and could also help refine Vesuvius Challenge algorithms.
The method, reported in PLOS One on Sept. 16, has not yet been adopted by Vesuvius Challenge leaders, but NIST says artificial-scroll experiments could improve efforts to read the only complete library preserved from antiquity.