Reading the Herculaneum scrolls with technology

There has been some breakthrough with AI in reading the texts of the charred scrolls at Herculaneum. There are some 600 texts to be examined.
 

Quote

Luke Farritor, who is at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, developed a machine-learning algorithm that has detected Greek letters on several lines of the rolled-up papyrus, including πορϕυρας (porphyras), meaning ‘purple’. Farritor used subtle, small-scale differences in surface texture to train his neural network and highlight the ink.

Here is some background information about the Vesuvius Challenge:

Quote

The Vesuvius Challenge offers a series of awards, leading to a main prize of US$700,000 for reading four or more passages from a rolled-up scroll. On 12 October, the organizers announced that Farritor has won the ‘first letters’ prize of $40,000 for reading more than 10 characters in a 4-square-centimetre area of papyrus. Youssef Nader, a graduate student at the Free University of Berlin, is awarded $10,000 for coming second.

https://arkeonews.net/researchers-use-ai-to-read-words-on-ancient-herculaneum-scroll-burned-by-vesuvius/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03212-1