AI is revolutionizing human lives in many aspects, even helping a young man win a $40,000 prize for deciphering text on a 2,000-year-old ancient scroll.
Luke Farritor, a 21-year-old University of Nebraska student, recently won a $40,000 prize for a groundbreaking scientific discovery. Farritor was the first person to read text on these ancient scrolls as part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a competition offering a $1 million prize to anyone who can unlock the secrets of the ancient scrolls using modern technology.
Seth Parker and Brent Seales of the Digital Restoration Initiative project. (Photo: UK Photo; How AI read the content on the ancient scroll)?
Why the Ancient Scrolls Couldn’t Be Read Normally
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, Pompeii wasn’t the only town obliterated. Landslides and immense heat spread to the prosperous city of Herculaneum, now in modern-day Italy. The intense heat instantly carbonized hundreds of scrolls, which were then buried in mud for 1,700 years until their excavation in 1752. Any attempt to open the ancient scrolls, which now resemble charcoal logs, would damage them beyond repair.
Image of text from the ancient scroll with ancient Greek letters highlighted in purple. (Photo: University of Kentucky)
Federica Nicolardi, a member of the academic committee that reviewed Farritor’s discovery, shared with Nature that these are “crazy objects, they’re all crumpled.” Unable to unroll the scrolls in the usual way, researchers used X-rays and machine learning to read the words within the scrolls, one by one. As part of the Vesuvius Challenge, the University of Kentucky recruited scientists to use AI to analyze the words in the scrolls.
To win the prize, Farritor needed to detect at least 10 legible letters on the scroll. Working on an area smaller than an inch square, Farritor’s algorithm detected several letters, including a complete word. Farritor was the first to read a word from the scroll and was awarded $40,000 from the Vesuvius Challenge. “I saw these letters and I completely freaked out,” he said in a press conference. Luke Farritor used machine learning technology to make the X-ray images of the scroll clear enough to be read.
According to Nicolardi, a professor at the University of Naples Federico II, the ancient Greek word “πορφυρας” means “purple dye” or “purple cloth.” While there isn’t enough context to understand what the scroll is about, she believes scholars will soon be able to read more of the material. “I think this will be a great revolution” in the field of papyrology. She noted that these are previously unknown texts, making their elucidation of great interest to scholars.
The Future of Undeciphered Scrolls
The 12 brown fragments of the unrolled ancient scroll are called P.Herc.118. (Photo: University of Oxford)
With so many scrolls yet to be read, a grand prize of $700,000 still remains. To win it, a team will need to read four passages from two scanned scrolls.