Technology has a way of becoming an everyday part of our lives. It’s not always a good thing – we are constantly connected to the world, with little break from computers, cell phones, and the constant media. The constant dings of incoming emails and beeps of incoming text messages can drive a person a bit crazy. Or, in the case of one college student, that text might just help you solve an ancient mystery more than 2,000 years old.
Luke Farritor, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student, was at a party when he heard that beep of a text message. Attached to the text was an image of a scroll. Farritor had recently joined a worldwide competition to translate ancient Roman scrolls that had been damaged in A.D. 79 by a volcanic eruption.
After the eruption, the scrolls were fossilized into carbon and are so fragile they can’t be touched. They were discovered covered in mud in 1752. The competition, called the Vesuvius Challenge, was created by University of Kentucky computer science professor Brent Seales to decipher the Herculaneum scrolls.
(The scrolls are) something that people said you would never be able to read because it’s too hard to extract the text,” he said.
So, Farritor, a science major, jumped at the chance to try out the artificial intelligence program he developed on the scrolls. The Greek letters on the papyrus were charred too much for human eyes to read them. He took the image and uploaded it to his AI program. Then like any good college student, he went back to his party. But after the bash ended a few hours later, he checked the status of the image.
First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by 21yo computer science student. Photo by the Vesuvius Challenge
Six letters had been revealed by his program. “I was completely amazed,” Farritor said. “I freaked out a little bit, jumping up and down, yelling, screaming.” But he knew that he needed to improve the image’s quality.
I was like… let’s keep going until it got to something that looks a lot like the image you’re seeing today,” Farritor said.
After texting his findings to challenge organizers, he spent the next week working. His program discovered a total of 16 letters. Farritor was awarded the ‘First Letters’ prize – $40,000. Federica Nicolardi, a papyrology proffers at the University of Naples, said that she was in disbelief when she saw what Farritor had discovered. After researchers worked on the findings, they were able to translate the Greek characters “πορφύραc” into the word “porphyras.”
Nicolardi said the word likely was used to describe the color of clothes or a purple dye, which was considered valuable in ancient Rome at the time. Researchers said the biggest discovery, though, is that modern technology showed that anyone might be able to read the scrolls. Now, challenge officials are offering $700,000 to the first person who can decipher four passages from the scrolls.
Researchers at The University of Kentucky’s EduceLab. Photo by the University of Kentucky
Farritor said he is working on more scrolls, but has plans for his earnings from the first challenge. “I’m going to buy more computers,” he said, “and win the grand prize.”For a look at the scroll and the path researchers have taken to try and read the damaged papyrus, watch below!
Sources: People | Washington Post
