Papyrology

For years, researchers have been attempting to decode the papyri destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE using the famous “bionic eye”

An Italian researcher believes he has identified the location of Plato's burial place in Athens by analyzing papyri from Herculaneum.

According to the research, led by the Italian papyrologist Graziano Ranocchia of the University of Pisa, Plato is buried in a in a private area in a garden in the Academy, near a sacred shrine to the Muses.

Researchers are using machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, to discern the faint ink on the rolled-up papyrus scroll

Three researchers on Monday won a $700,000 prize for using artificial intelligence to read a 2,000-year-old scroll that was scorched in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Scrolls expert conservator Anton Fackelmann at work in a Vienna museum. In 1962 he was invited to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki to try to make the almost charred scroll of Derveni papyrus suitable for reading. By spraying the papyrus with plant sap and placing the fragments under a heat lamp, he managed to save over 260 fragments.

In the lush green fields of Egypt's fertile Delta Valley, farmers and artisans are struggling to make a living as they keep alive the Pharaonic-era tradition of making papyrus.

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Scientists used advanced X-ray to analyze the composition of the ink markings found on papyrus fragments

A rare, 2,000-year-old New Testament manuscript has been discovered on eBay by Geoffrey Smith, a scholar of early Christianity at the University of Texas, and the starting bid for the manuscript was at just $99.

“I thought, ‘This can’t be allowed to sell on eBay. It will just disappear into a private collection.”, Mr. Smith said.

According to reports quoted by “The Independent”, ISIS jihadists ransacked the Mosul library and set fire to thousands of rare documents, papyrus scrolls and hand-written works, some dating back many centuries.
 

Around 8,000 tomes were destroyed, as well as hundreds of rare and unique documents.