The latest on the Heculaneum papyri

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: A few developments regarding the ongoing decipherment of the carbonized Heculaneum papyri.

The most interesting is the reported recovery of biographical details about the philospher Zeno of Citium. He was the founder of Stoicism and is not to be confused with Zeno of Elea, the Presocratic philosopher who gave us Zeno's famous paradoxes of the flying arrow and of Achilles and the tortise.

New Details on Zeno, Founder of Stoicism, Revealed from Carbonised Papyri. Thanks to sophisticated technologies applied to the carbonised papyri of Herculaneum, scholars have succeeded in reading several passages relating to the life of the Stoic philosopher (Unipinews).

This press release refers to a study in Scientific Reports (Springer Nature). The only such study I can find is a highly technical one that lacks the detials about the contents of this and the other papyri. But it's open access, so have a go at it if you like.

Pulsed thermographic analysis of Herculaneum papyri

Sofia Ceccarelli, Massimo Rippa, Giovanni Caruso, Loredana Luvidi, Simona Boccuti, Melania Paturzo, Vito Pagliarulo, Kilian Fleischer, Costanza Miliani & Graziano Ranocchia
Scientific Reports volume 15, Article number: 34466 (2025)

Abstract

The Herculaneum papyri represent an exceptional cultural treasure, providing invaluable insights into the philosophical, literary and historical landscape of the Greco-Roman world. However, their carbonization due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD poses significant challenges for both textual legibility and structural analysis. This study illustrates the first application of Pulsed Thermography to the non-destructive analysis of these unique manuscripts. By employing an experimental setup comprising a couple of flashes providing the excitation and a thermal camera for recording the infrared emission from the sample, the technique proves to be an important tool for textual recovery, revealing writing almost not discernible to the naked eye. Furthermore, Pulsed Thermography provides structural information useful for restorers, such as the papyrus texture and adhesion points to paperboard, offering a valuable advantage over other imaging techniques. The results show the potential of the adopted method not only as a powerful tool for textual recovery but also for guiding conservation strategies ensuring a deeper understanding of Herculaneum papyri.

It's not clear to me how much of the information about Zeno is new. The manuscript PHerc. 1018 was originally published in a Brill volume in 1993.

The Vesuvius Challenge Project also has a new Substack post on the latest on the scrolls' decipherment. Again, it is technical.

Multiple scrolls now show Greek letters. Who wants to help read them all?

TL;DR: Our generalist ink‑detection model and ~2 µm CT scans now reveal Greek letters across multiple scrolls. Early, noisy—but real signal. VC3D gets major usability upgrades. New $200K Unwrapping at Scale prize. Get involved.

Finally, NewScientist has a general article on the decipherment of the Herculaneum Library.

We’re finally reading the secrets of Herculaneum’s lost library. A whole library’s worth of papyri owned by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law were turned to charcoal by the eruption of Vesuvius. Nearly 2000 years later, we can at last read these lost treasures (Hayley Bennett).

What I can see looks interesting, but the rest is behind a subscription wall.

Anyway, bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and its destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and on the efforts to reconstruct and decipher the carbonized library at Herculaneum, start here and follow the links.

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