Revealing letters in rolled Herculaneum papyri

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  • Опубліковано 9 гру 2024
  • @VitoMocella
    Video illustrating results from the papers
    Mocella, V. et al. Revealing letters in rolled Herculaneum papyri by X-ray phase-contrast imaging. Nat. Commun. 6:5895 doi: 10.1038/ncomms6895 (2015). available via t.co/XK8Zp8N267
    Hundreds of papyrus rolls, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and belonging to the only library passed on from Antiquity, were discovered 260 years ago at Herculaneum. These carbonized papyri are extremely fragile and are inevitably damaged or destroyed in the process of trying to open them to read their contents. In recent years, new imaging tech- niques have been developed to read the texts without unwrapping the rolls. Until now, specialists have been unable to view the carbon-based ink of these papyri, even when they could penetrate the different layers of their spiral structure. Here for the first time, we show that X-ray phase-contrast tomography can reveal various letters hidden inside the precious papyri without unrolling them. This attempt opens up new opportunities to read many Herculaneum papyri, which are still rolled up, thus enhancing our knowledge of ancient Greek literature and philosophy.

КОМЕНТАРІ • 6

  • @will_adamborn
    @will_adamborn 4 роки тому +1

    Science is so advanced now wow

  • @Gnosisless22
    @Gnosisless22 10 років тому +8

    You really need to lose the "volcano" sound that permeates this video. It adds nothing to the story, and in the end is just annoying.

    • @salemthegoddess
      @salemthegoddess 10 років тому

      I came here to say this exact thing.

    • @jellocube27
      @jellocube27 8 років тому

      +Gnosisless22 I loved the volcano sounds and found them very soothing. They were perhaps the only reason I watched this video to the end.

  • @SanAndreas091
    @SanAndreas091 10 років тому

    but how can you read that blurry ass text?

  • @duncanmckinnon
    @duncanmckinnon 3 роки тому

    What a useless bit of information. What do the letters say? How far have they got with any text? etc. etc.