Reading the new aesthetic treatise from Herculaneum with AI
By Richard Janko, University of Michigan
The Vesuvius Challenge, in which a prize of $1m. was offered for success at reading with Artificial Intelligence one of the papyrus-rolls from Herculaneum that has never been opened, has rendered legible most of the last sixteen columns of a lost work on aesthetics, probably by Philodemus. This is P.Herc.Paris. 4, one of the scrolls that was presented to Napoleon I and is now kept in the Institut de France. The scanning and digital flattening was done by Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky.
The Wanamaker Bronzes in the University of Pennsylvania Museum
By Ann Brownlee, University of Pennsylvania
In early 1905, a collection of more than 450 bronze reproductions, the gift of Philadelphia department store founder John Wanamaker (1838-1922), arrived at the Free Museum of Science and Art, the precursor of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Almost all were reproductions of objects preserved in the Naples Archaeological Museum and found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Some eighty-five reproductions are copies of objects from Herculaneum, particularly both large- and small-scale sculpture from the Villa dei Papiri.
The Virtual Unwrapping of the Herculaneum Papyri
By Stephen Parsons, University of Kentucky
Virtual unwrapping has now been established as a successful technique for the noninvasive recovery of damaged manuscripts [1]. Though originally conceived for the Herculaneum papyri, the method has struggled in the face of the unique challenges presented by these scrolls. X-ray CT images of Herculaneum scrolls reveal a complex scene of compressed and crumpled papyrus layers that are difficult to separate and to follow.
Visualizing Dipinti: Decorrelation Stretch and the painted inscriptions of Herculaneum and Pompeii
By Jacqueline DiBiasie-Sammons, University of Mississippi
Painted inscriptions, also known as dipinti, are found throughout the cities of Campania and most especially at Pompeii. The city of Herculaneum, for a variety of reasons, likely had fewer dipinti in antiquity and only a handful are extant. Most dipinti were written on the façade wall plaster and are poorly preserved due to both environmental and anthropogenic factors. Their poor preservation makes it difficult to visualize the dipinti, especially in publication, or re-read the inscriptions.