Scientists decode messages from scrolls burned by Mt. Vesuvius

Thanks to X-ray technology, scientists in Naples, Italy, are reading papyrus scrolls that were burned in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

The scrolls were recovered from the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, near Pompeii, roughly 260 years ago. The texts were burned black by hot volcanic gases and were thought to be lost, since they couldn't be unrolled.

The scientists have analyzed the first lines of two scrolls, CNET reports. So far, they've deciphered two words: On one line, they've made out a Greek word that means "would fall," and another word that means "would say." The scientists also used the X-ray technology to analyze one of the scrolls' handwriting and have attributed it to the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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The findings could have implications for other long-lost texts from ancient philosphers, The New York Times reports. The scrolls were found at a library in a Herculaneum villa, thought to have been home to Julius Caesar's father-in-law. The library contains more than 300 scrolls, so these findings could be just the beginning.