Ancient secrets have been unearthed on a tiny scale, but with far-reaching implications for our understanding of human nature. Using artificial intelligence, researchers have virtually unwrapped and deciphered a fragment of a 2,000-year-old papyrus scroll, charred by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. The scroll's contents reveal previously unknown text on stoic philosophy, shedding light on the ethics, art, and human behaviour that governed ancient Greek thought.
The breakthrough concerns PHerc 1667, a fragment of over a metre long from a collection of hundreds recovered from Herculaneum's luxury Roman villa library. This papyrus is one of the oldest in the collection, dating back to either the second or late-third century BC. The scroll's history has been marked by fragility; it was broken in half at some point and past attempts to unroll it led to flaking outer layers.
Thanks to AI-powered machine-learning algorithms trained on detecting subtle differences in papyrus fibres in X-ray images, the researchers were able to uncover 20 columns of hidden text. These findings will be presented at a conference in Naples as part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a global contest launched in 2023 that incentivised teams to use AI and other software for virtually unwrapping and reading the carbonised scrolls from high-resolution X-ray images.
The scroll's age and content suggest it may have been written by Chrysippus, a Greek philosopher whose nephew and pupil, Aristocreon, is mentioned in the text. The newly deciphered text delves into stoic concepts like horm��, or impulse, warning that failing to regulate behaviour with reason can lead to detrimental passions and a deviation from one's objectives.
A key concept explored is phronēsis, or 'practical wisdom,' regarded as the highest virtue in stoic philosophy. A passage states: 'We will inquire into something, but we will not grasp it, if in some way we depart from ourselves and from our own nature,' highlighting the stoic belief in reason and innate human goodness as fundamental to acquiring knowledge.
The success of the Vesuvius Challenge has shifted focus from technical reading of the scrolls to scholarly interpretation of their profound historical and philosophical content. Dr Federica Nicolardi, a papyrologist at the University of Naples Federico II, observes that these 'dead books' are now yielding secrets about human nature, and we can expect to see far-reaching implications in various fields, from ethics to psychology.