UK scientists have announced what they term a “historic breakthrough,” after the first image of the inside of a scroll carbonized by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago was uncovered. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s amid the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. Scholars and scientists have worked for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, the vast majority of which are held in the National Library of Naples. Wednesday’s announcement of a breakthrough relates to one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library. UK scientists have announced what they term a “historic breakthrough,” after the first image of the inside of a scroll carbonized by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago was uncovered. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s amid the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. Scholars and scientists have worked for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, the vast majority of which are held in the National Library of Naples. Wednesday’s announcement of a breakthrough relates to one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library. AP Technology and Science
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