Researchers use AI to read ancient scroll burned to a crisp in Vesuvius eruption

Vesuvius Challenge Scroll. Photo: X/Vesuvius Challenge

Researchers have peered inside an ancient scroll that was burned to a crisp in the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago.

The scroll is one of hundreds found in the library of a Roman mansion in Herculaneum, a town on the west coast of Italy that was wiped out when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.