# The Herculaneum Papyri and the Vesuvius Challenge > The carbonised rolls from the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum are the only large library to survive from classical antiquity, and hundreds of them are… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) Updated: 2026-10-27T17:47:30+00:00 --- **MYS** 0D367N4W34X9·Mystery · document # The Herculaneum Papyri and the Vesuvius Challenge **0** [Follow][Ask a question](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=herculaneum-papyri) The Herculaneum Papyri and the Vesuvius Challenge ![Photos of the papyrus fragments PHerc.1103 (a) and PHerc.110 (b,c).](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/herculaneum-papyri-lead) Sara Stabile et al. · CC BY 4.0 Where found Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum, excavated from 1750⁠[[1]] Buried AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius⁠[[2]] Main holder Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli (Officina dei Papiri)⁠[[6]] First roll read in full PHerc. 1667, announced 25 June 2026⁠[[6]] Scan used ESRF beamline BM18, 2.4 µm voxels, about 78 keV mean energy⁠[[2]] Open data licence CC BY-NC 4.0 unless otherwise noted⁠[[7]] Current prize 2027 Grand Prize, US$1,000,000 in total, deadline 25 June 2027⁠[[12]] Status Partly explained Questions 1 of 4 answered People [**Philodemus of Gadara** Epicurean philosopher; author of much of the opened library](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/people/FIG0D367RJ80W82/philodemus-of-gadara)[**Sean Johnson** Vesuvius Challenge researcher; read the title of PHerc. 172](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/people/FIG0D367R2M60RE/sean-johnson)[**W. Brent Seales** Computer scientist, University of Kentucky; pioneer of virtual unwrapping](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/people/FIG0D367PVJ4M45/w-brent-seales)[**Federica Nicolardi** Papyrologist; leads the Vesuvius Challenge papyrological team](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/people/FIG0D367RAE5EWE/federica-nicolardi)[**Julian Schilliger** 2023 Grand Prize winner](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/people/FIG0D367QTT0421/julian-schilliger) All 8 people › [**Luke Farritor** 2023 Grand Prize winner](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/people/FIG0D367QK061ET/luke-farritor)[**Nat Friedman** Co-founder and funder of the Vesuvius Challenge](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/people/FIG0D367Q3C06M3/nat-friedman)[**Youssef Nader** 2023 Grand Prize winner](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/people/FIG0D367QB6619R/youssef-nader) Catalog key**MYS** 0D367N4W34X9 When Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 it buried a large seaside villa outside Herculaneum under deep volcanic deposits. Excavators tunnelling into it from 1750 found a library of papyrus rolls, carbonised by the heat into black cylinders that crumble when touched⁠[[1]]. Many were destroyed or reduced to strips in attempts to unroll them by hand and by machine. Those that were opened turned out to be mostly Greek philosophy, much of it by the Epicurean Philodemus, and they remain the only large-scale library to survive from the ancient world⁠[[1]]⁠[[2]]. Hundreds of rolls and multi-layer fragments were never opened, because opening them would destroy them⁠[[2]]. Brent Seales's group at the University of Kentucky proposed reading them by computed tomography and "virtual unwrapping", and proved the idea in 2016 on a charred Hebrew scroll from En-Gedi⁠[[3]]. Herculaneum is harder, because the carbon ink and the carbonised papyrus look almost the same to X-rays⁠[[4]]. The Vesuvius Challenge, an open competition launched in 2023, paid contestants to solve the two hard steps: tracing the papyrus surface through the scan and detecting ink on it⁠[[2]]. Its 2023 Grand Prize, awarded on 5 February 2024, recovered more than 2,000 characters from PHerc. Paris. 4⁠[[5]]. On 25 June 2026 the project announced that the surviving part of PHerc. 1667, held in Naples, had been unwrapped and read end to end: 22 columns of a Greek ethical treatise, probably Stoic, that names the philosopher Aristocreon⁠[[6]]⁠[[2]]. The same paper confirmed the 2023 reading of PHerc. Paris. 4 against a sharper scan in which the ink is directly visible, and read the title of PHerc. 139 as Philodemus, On Gods, Book 8⁠[[2]]. The scans, meshes and code are public⁠[[7]]⁠[[8]]. Of the 4 questions on this site, 1 are answered. The most likely answer to “Can the sealed Herculaneum rolls be read in full, non-invasively, at the scale of the whole library?”, not yet confirmed: the 2026 pipeline (BM18 scanning at about 2.4 µm, semi-automatic surface tracing and learned ink detection)…. ### Key questionsset by the editors [**Can the sealed Herculaneum rolls be read in full, non-invasively, at the scale of the whole library?** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/questions/QST0D367VG00XNS/can-the-sealed-herculaneum-rolls-be-read-in-full-non)Most likely: the 2026 pipeline (BM18 scanning at about 2.4 µm, semi-automatic surface tracing and learned ink detection)… [**What do the still-sealed rolls contain?** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/questions/QST0D367VZM0NNS/what-do-the-still-sealed-rolls-contain)Most likely: the sealed rolls mirror the opened ones; they are mainly Philodemus and other Epicurean works [All 4 questions ](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=herculaneum-papyri) ## The object The library came from the Villa dei Papiri, a large villa on the shore at Herculaneum that was tunnelled between 1750 and 1765⁠[[1]]. The rolls were taken to Naples, where most are still kept in the Officina dei Papiri of the Biblioteca Nazionale; a few were given away as diplomatic gifts and are now in Paris and Oxford⁠[[5]]⁠[[9]]. Each roll or fragment carries an inventory number prefixed PHerc. A complete roll was about 19 to 24 cm high and 4 to 6 cm across when carbonised⁠[[2]]. Four rolls carry the recent results. PHerc. Paris. 4, at the Institut de France, gave the 2023 Grand Prize text⁠[[5]]. PHerc. 172, at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, was scanned at Diamond Light Source in July 2024 and gave up its title in 2025⁠[[9]]. PHerc. 139 and PHerc. 1667 are in Naples⁠[[2]]. PHerc. 1667 is itself only the inner core of a roll: an attempt to open it in the nineteenth century, another by the conservator A. Fackelmann in November 1969 and a mechanical opening in the 1980s reduced it from 4.9 to 2 cm across and left only the lower 8 cm of its height⁠[[2]]. **Map of the country** [Open the full map](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/map) [Area][Country] [+][−] 1 **Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum** Roman villa (archaeological site) Within 100 m 2 **European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble** Synchrotron Within 100 m 3 **Institut de France, Paris** Learned society Within 100 m 4 **Bodleian Libraries, Oxford** Library Within 100 m MappedNatural Earth ### Timeline **Timeline** Squeezed where little happened. Each mark is a published claim, by how it stands:AcceptedMost likelyStill possibleDisputedRuled out ## What is known The opened rolls show that the core of the library was Epicurean philosophy, much of it by Philodemus of Gadara, who worked in Italy in the first century BC, together with older Epicurean texts and some works in Latin⁠[[1]]. Who owned the villa is not settled; a long-standing view links it to Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Philodemus's patron⁠[[1]]. The new results add specific texts. The 2023 Grand Prize passages in PHerc. Paris. 4 discuss pleasure and whether scarcity of goods such as food affects the pleasure they give; Richard Janko judged it very likely to be by Philodemus⁠[[5]]. PHerc. 172 carries the title Philodemus, On Vices, Book 1, read independently in 2025 by Sean Johnson of the Vesuvius Challenge and by Marcel Roth and Micha Nowak of the University of Würzburg⁠[[9]]. PHerc. 139 is Philodemus, On Gods, Book 8⁠[[2]]. PHerc. 1667 is the end of an ethical treatise. Its title is lost with the upper part of the roll, so the author cannot be named, but its vocabulary and the mention of Aristocreon, Chrysippus's nephew and pupil, point to a Stoic work of the second century BC, perhaps the very late third⁠[[2]]. ## What has been tested X-ray phase-contrast tomography at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility first showed letter-like signals inside a closed roll in 2015⁠[[10]]. A 2016 study found lead in the ink of some Herculaneum papyri, which gives X-ray contrast where carbon ink alone does not⁠[[11]]. The EduceLab-Scrolls dataset of 2023 trained ink-detection models on opened fragments, using infrared photographs of the exposed surface as ground truth, and reported moderate character recall (about 42 per cent) with about 18 per cent false positives when checked by a papyrologist⁠[[4]]. The 2026 paper tests three things on three rolls⁠[[2]]. For PHerc. 1667 it claims complete coverage of the preserved writing surface, about 860 square centimetres in 22 columns, with only 33 square centimetres in the first three columns left untranscribed. For PHerc. Paris. 4 a scan at 2.4 µm makes ink deposits 10 to 20 µm thick directly visible in the volume, and the segmented ink matches the 2023 machine-learning reading, which is an independent check that the models were reading real ink. For PHerc. 139 it recovers a title and author line. The ink models were trained iteratively on labelled columns of the same roll while a held-out column was used for validation⁠[[2]]. ## The readings Three questions remain open. The first is whether the method scales. PHerc. 1667 was a small, already reduced roll; PHerc. 172 was about 70 per cent unwrapped at the time of the 2026 paper; and the 2027 Grand Prize asks for one complete scroll from a set of 13 eligible rolls, which shows that a full intact roll has not yet been read⁠[[2]]⁠[[12]]. Heavily compressed or damaged rolls may defeat surface tracing even where ink is visible. The second is what the sealed rolls contain. Every title recovered so far from a closed roll is by Philodemus except PHerc. 1667, which looks Stoic⁠[[9]]⁠[[2]]. One reading is that the sealed rolls will mirror the opened ones: mostly Philodemus and the Epicurean school. Another is that they hold a wider philosophical collection, including works by rival schools that survive nowhere else. A third, argued from the villa's size and its unexcavated levels, is that a larger library, including Latin literature, lies unexcavated⁠[[1]]. The third depends on excavation as much as on imaging. The third question is attribution. With the title of PHerc. 1667 lost, its author can be argued from content and style only; press accounts mention Chrysippus as a working hypothesis, which the paper itself does not claim⁠[[13]]⁠[[2]]. ### Published claims **Published claims and their status** | Year | Who | Claimed | Status | Reason | |---|---|---|---|---| | 2005 | David Sider⁠[1] | The recovered rolls may be a skewed sample: a larger library, including Latin literature, could lie in the villa's unexcavated parts. | Still possible | Latin works are present among the opened rolls, but the villa's lower levels have not been excavated to test it⁠[1]. | | 2015 | Vito Mocella and colleagues⁠[10] | X-ray phase-contrast tomography can show letters inside a rolled Herculaneum papyrus without opening it. | Accepted | Later scans at the same facility made ink deposits directly visible inside a roll and matched them to a machine-learning reading⁠[2]. | | 2016 | Emmanuel Brun and colleagues⁠[11] | Some Herculaneum papyri were written in ink containing lead, which shows up in X-ray methods where pure carbon ink does not. | Accepted | The 2026 readings name variation in ink recipe among the reasons the signal differs from roll to roll⁠[2]. | | 2016 | W. Brent Seales and colleagues⁠[3] | Virtual unwrapping of CT scans can read a charred scroll that cannot be opened, as shown on the scroll from En-Gedi. | Accepted | The same approach, with ink detection added, has since read sealed Herculaneum rolls⁠[2]⁠[9]. | | 2023 | Stephen Parsons and colleagues (EduceLab)⁠[4] | Machine-learning models trained on opened fragments can find carbon ink in CT scans of Herculaneum papyri, with results that can be checked. | Accepted | Their early recall was modest⁠[4], but later readings were confirmed by direct imaging of the ink and by independent readers⁠[2]⁠[9]. | | 2024 | Vesuvius Challenge, with Richard Janko⁠[5] | The passages read from PHerc. Paris. 4 discuss pleasure in Epicurean terms and are very likely by Philodemus. | Most likely | The reading was later confirmed by direct imaging of the ink⁠[2]; the attribution to Philodemus rests on content⁠[5]. | | 2025 | Sean Johnson, and separately Marcel Roth and Micha Nowak⁠[9] | The sealed roll PHerc. 172 is Philodemus, On Vices, Book 1. | Accepted | The title was read independently by two teams at about the same time⁠[9]. | | 2026 | Giorgio Angelotti and colleagues⁠[2] | The preserved writing surface of PHerc. 1667 has been virtually unwrapped and transcribed almost in full, and ink seen directly in a 2.4 µm scan of PHerc. Paris. 4 matches the 2023 machine reading. | Accepted | Validated on a held-out column and by direct imaging⁠[2]; PHerc. 1667 is only a small core, so a complete intact roll is still to be read⁠[12]. | | 2026 | Giorgio Angelotti and colleagues⁠[2] | PHerc. 1667 is an ethical treatise from a Stoic context, copied around the end of the third century BC or later; its author cannot be named because the title is lost. | Most likely | The vocabulary and the mention of Aristocreon point to Stoic circles, but the editors stop short of naming an author⁠[2]. | | 2026 | ScienceBlog (press reports)⁠[13] | The treatise in PHerc. 1667 may be by Chrysippus. | Still possible | Offered in press accounts as a working hypothesis; the paper itself names no author⁠[2]. | ## What would settle it A complete, intact roll unwrapped from outside to core, with its title, would show that the pipeline scales; the 2027 Grand Prize is designed to produce one. Reading titles across many sealed rolls would answer what the library contains far faster than full transcriptions, because Herculaneum rolls usually repeat their title at the end. Attribution of PHerc. 1667 would be settled by a parallel quotation in another source or by a stylistic comparison against the surviving fragments of Chrysippus and other Stoics. Whether more of the library survives underground can only be settled by excavating the villa's lower levels. ## Questions 1 of 4 questions are answered. **Key questions** [All 4](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=herculaneum-papyri) **0** [Can the sealed Herculaneum rolls be read in full, non-invasively, at the scale of the whole library?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/questions/QST0D367VG00XNS/can-the-sealed-herculaneum-rolls-be-read-in-full-non) 1 of 1 sub-questions answered·0 Most likely: the 2026 pipeline (BM18 scanning at about 2.4 µm, semi-automatic surface tracing and learned ink detection)… **0** [What do the still-sealed rolls contain?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/questions/QST0D367VZM0NNS/what-do-the-still-sealed-rolls-contain) 0 of 1 sub-questions answered·0 Most likely: the sealed rolls mirror the opened ones; they are mainly Philodemus and other Epicurean works ## Evidence 20 findings [Can the sealed Herculaneum rolls be read in full, non-invasively, at the scale of the whole library?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/questions/QST0D367VG00XNS/can-the-sealed-herculaneum-rolls-be-read-in-full-non)7 findings [The 2026 pipeline (BM18 scanning at about 2.4 µm, semi-automatic surface tracing and learned ink detection)…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D367WF82EJD/the-2026-pipeline-bm18-scanning-at-about-2-4-m-semi)Most likely +[PHerc. 1667's preserved surface, about 860 square centimetres in 22 columns, was unwrapped and transcribed except 33 square centimetres in the first three columns.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367WQ27RGQ/pherc-1667s-preserved-surface-about-860-square-centimetres)Supported +[About 70 per cent of PHerc. 172 had been digitally unwrapped by mid-2026.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367WYW5RJ6/about-70-per-cent-of-pherc-172-had-been-digitally-unwrapped)Supported −[PHerc. 1667 is only an 8 cm by 2 cm core, so its success says little about tracing a full 4 to 6 cm roll.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367X6P672V/pherc-1667-is-only-an-8-cm-by-2-cm-core-so-its-success-says)Supported −[The 2027 Grand Prize is offered for fully unrolling one scroll from a set of 13, which implies no complete intact roll had been read by late 2026.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367XEG1P49/the-2027-grand-prize-is-offered-for-fully-unrolling-one)Supported [The method will read rolls that are well preserved and carry favourable ink, but heavily compressed, fused or…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D367XPA1PNQ/the-method-will-read-rolls-that-are-well-preserved-and-carry)Still possible +[Ink composition varies across the library; some inks contain lead, which changes X-ray contrast.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367XY44HKS/ink-composition-varies-across-the-library-some-inks-contain)Supported +[The 2026 paper names variation in ink recipe, contaminants, deposit shape and preservation as reasons the signal differs from roll to roll.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367Y5Y30FW/the-2026-paper-names-variation-in-ink-recipe-contaminants)Suggestive [Full reading will remain limited to a few exceptional rolls; for most of the library only scattered words or…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D367YDR3AM8/full-reading-will-remain-limited-to-a-few-exceptional-rolls)Still possible +[Fragment-trained ink models in 2023 reached only about 42 per cent character recall with about 18 per cent false positives.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367YNJ7WKR/fragment-trained-ink-models-in-2023-reached-only-about-42)Suggestive [Are the machine-learning ink readings real ancient text rather than artefacts of the models?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/questions/QST0D367VQT7R26/are-the-machine-learning-ink-readings-real-ancient-text)4 findings [The readings reflect real ink, as shown by independent imaging and independent readers.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D367Z565VAY/the-readings-reflect-real-ink-as-shown-by-independent)Most likely +[In the 2.4 µm BM18 scan of PHerc. Paris. 4, ink deposits 10 to 20 µm thick are directly visible and match the 2023 Grand Prize reading.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367ZD04989/in-the-2-4-m-bm18-scan-of-pherc-paris-4-ink-deposits-10-to)Established +[The title of PHerc. 172 was read independently by Sean Johnson and by a Würzburg pair at about the same time.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367ZMT5K90/the-title-of-pherc-172-was-read-independently-by-sean)Supported +[For PHerc. 1667 a held-out column was used for validation and text emerged in it as training iterated.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D367ZWM726M/for-pherc-1667-a-held-out-column-was-used-for-validation-and)Suggestive [Most readings are real but some letters, especially in low-signal areas, are model artefacts that…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D36804E7SVS/most-readings-are-real-but-some-letters-especially-in-low)Still possible +[Iterative self-labelling on the same roll can reinforce early errors; the 2026 paper marks uncertain letters with underdots.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D3680C85NK2/iterative-self-labelling-on-the-same-roll-can-reinforce)Speculative [What do the still-sealed rolls contain?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/questions/QST0D367VZM0NNS/what-do-the-still-sealed-rolls-contain)5 findings [The sealed rolls mirror the opened ones; they are mainly Philodemus and other Epicurean works.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D3680VW464H/the-sealed-rolls-mirror-the-opened-ones-they-are-mainly)Most likely +[PHerc. 172 is Philodemus, On Vices, Book 1.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D36813P7BBX/pherc-172-is-philodemus-on-vices-book-1)Established +[PHerc. 139 is Philodemus, On Gods, Book 8.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D3681BG6349/pherc-139-is-philodemus-on-gods-book-8)Supported +[The 2023 passages from PHerc. Paris. 4 discuss pleasure in Epicurean terms and are very likely by Philodemus.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D3681KA49DC/the-2023-passages-from-pherc-paris-4-discuss-pleasure-in)Supported [The library held a wider philosophical collection, including Stoic and other works now lost, that the sealed…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D3681V45JBT/the-library-held-a-wider-philosophical-collection-including)Most likely +[PHerc. 1667 is an ethical treatise with Stoic vocabulary that names Aristocreon, Chrysippus's nephew and pupil.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D36822Y6W39/pherc-1667-is-an-ethical-treatise-with-stoic-vocabulary-that)Supported [A larger library, including much Latin literature, remains in unexcavated parts of the villa, so the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D3682AR246X/a-larger-library-including-much-latin-literature-remains-in)Still possible +[Latin works are present among the opened rolls, and parts of the villa have never been excavated.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D3682JJ51AS/latin-works-are-present-among-the-opened-rolls-and-parts-of)Suggestive [Who wrote the treatise in PHerc. 1667?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/questions/QST0D367W7E3GZG/who-wrote-the-treatise-in-pherc-1667)4 findings [The treatise is by Chrysippus.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D3683264EC6/the-treatise-is-by-chrysippus)Still possible +[The mention of Aristocreon, Chrysippus's nephew and pupil, ties the text to his circle.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D3683A05YRA/the-mention-of-aristocreon-chrysippuss-nephew-and-pupil-ties)Suggestive −[The editors date the copy to the second century BC and do not name an author.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D3683HT6C7G/the-editors-date-the-copy-to-the-second-century-bc-and-do)Suggestive [The treatise is by another Stoic of the late third or second century BC, possibly in Chrysippus's school.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D3683SM47FF/the-treatise-is-by-another-stoic-of-the-late-third-or-second)Most likely +[Lexical and conceptual features, and the Aristocreon reference, point to a Stoic context dated around the end of the third century BC or later.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D36841E7446/lexical-and-conceptual-features-and-the-aristocreon)Supported [The treatise is an Epicurean work, perhaps by Philodemus, that discusses Stoic views and names Stoics in…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/answers/ANS0D3684983BEF/the-treatise-is-an-epicurean-work-perhaps-by-philodemus-that)Still possible +[The library's opened rolls include Philodemus's works that discuss and criticise other schools.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/evidence/EVD0D3684H26HDH/the-librarys-opened-rolls-include-philodemuss-works-that)Speculative ## Artifacts The films, photos, papers and objects this mystery rests on, each with its own key and its distance from the original. **Artifacts** [See all 10](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/artifacts) Photo2 steps from object [PHerc. 1667 (Vesuvius Challenge Scroll 4)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/artifacts/ART0D36867R0QD6/pherc-1667-vesuvius-challenge-scroll-4) Vesuvius Challenge · CC BY-NC 4.0 Photo2 steps from object [PHerc. Paris. 4 (Vesuvius Challenge Scroll 1)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/artifacts/ART0D3686Z63881/pherc-paris-4-vesuvius-challenge-scroll-1) Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor and Julian Schilliger (Vesuvius Challenge) · CC BY-NC 4.0 Dataset1 step from object [PHerc. 172 (Philodemus, On Vices, Book 1)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/artifacts/ART0D3687PM2A64/pherc-172-philodemus-on-vices-book-1) Vesuvius Challenge at Diamond Light Source · CC BY-NC 4.0 Dataset1 step from object [PHerc. 139 (Philodemus, On Gods, Book 8)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/artifacts/ART0D36886872JM/pherc-139-philodemus-on-gods-book-8) Vesuvius Challenge at ESRF BM18 · CC BY-NC 4.0 [See all 10 artifacts](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/herculaneum-papyri/artifacts) ## See also [ **Dead Sea Scrolls: dating, scribes and provenance** Jewish manuscripts of the 3rd century BC to 1st century AD, found near Qumran. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/dead-sea-scrolls-dating) [ **Dorabella cipher** An 1897 note of 87 semicircle symbols from Edward Elgar to Dora Penny, still unread. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/dorabella-cipher) [ **Archimedes Palimpsest** A 13th-century prayer book written over an erased 10th-century copy of Archimedes. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/archimedes-palimpsest) [ **Copiale cipher** A 105-page cipher manuscript broken in 2011, the rule book of a secret society. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/copiale-cipher) ## References 1. 1.[Sider, D. 2005. The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367MDE7175/the-library-of-the-villa-dei-papiri-at-herculaneum)[doi](https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530610682245)cited 8 times here**SRC** 0D367MDE7175 1. 2.[Angelotti, G., Parsons, S., Nicolardi, F. et al. 2026. Complete virtual unwrapping and reading of a rolled Herculaneum papyrus. arXiv.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367HFP2ZBK/complete-virtual-unwrapping-and-reading-of-a-rolled)cited 29 times here**SRC** 0D367HFP2ZBK 1. 3.[Seales, W., Parker, C., Segal, M. et al. 2016. From damage to discovery via virtual unwrapping: Reading the scroll from En-Gedi. Science Advances 2(9), e1601247.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367KP02AH6/from-damage-to-discovery-via-virtual-unwrapping-reading-the)[doi](https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601247)cited 3 times here**SRC** 0D367KP02AH6 1. 4.[Parsons, S., Parker, C., Chapman, C. et al. 2023. EduceLab-Scrolls: Verifiable Recovery of Text from Herculaneum Papyri using X-ray CT. arXiv.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367JYJ5C81/educelab-scrolls-verifiable-recovery-of-text-from)cited 5 times here**SRC** 0D367JYJ5C81 1. 5.[Vesuvius Challenge 2024. Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded. scrollprize.org.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367HZA6X3H/vesuvius-challenge-2023-grand-prize-awarded)cited 8 times here**SRC** 0D367HZA6X3H 1. 6.[Vesuvius Challenge 2026. First complete Herculaneum scroll read (announcement). scrollprize.org.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367HQG0SP3/first-complete-herculaneum-scroll-read-announcement)cited 5 times here**SRC** 0D367HQG0SP3 1. 7.[Vesuvius Challenge n.d.. Vesuvius Challenge data: formats, datasets and access. scrollprize.org.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367J7474RW/vesuvius-challenge-data-formats-datasets-and-access)cited 6 times here**SRC** 0D367J7474RW 1. 8.[Vesuvius Challenge contributors n.d.. ScrollPrize/villa: the Vesuvius Challenge monorepo. GitHub.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367JPR2JQY/scrollprize-villa-the-vesuvius-challenge-monorepo)cited 2 times here**SRC** 0D367JPR2JQY 1. 9.[Fine Books & Collections 2025. Title of work deciphered in sealed Herculaneum scroll via digital unwrapping. Fine Books & Collections (news).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367KXT3448/title-of-work-deciphered-in-sealed-herculaneum-scroll-via)cited 9 times here**SRC** 0D367KXT3448 1. 10.[Mocella, V., Brun, E., Ferrero, C. et al. 2015. Revealing letters in rolled Herculaneum papyri by X-ray phase-contrast imaging. Nature Communications 6, 5895.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367K6C76ET/revealing-letters-in-rolled-herculaneum-papyri-by-x-ray)[doi](https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6895)cited 2 times here**SRC** 0D367K6C76ET 1. 11.[Brun, E., Cotte, M., Wright, J. et al. 2016. Revealing metallic ink in Herculaneum papyri. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(14), 3751-3754.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367KE62XYM/revealing-metallic-ink-in-herculaneum-papyri)[doi](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519958113)cited 2 times here**SRC** 0D367KE62XYM 1. 12.[Vesuvius Challenge 2026. Vesuvius Challenge prizes. scrollprize.org.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367JEY30DV/vesuvius-challenge-prizes)cited 3 times here**SRC** 0D367JEY30DV 1. 13.[ScienceBlog 2026. Eighteenth-century scholars destroyed hundreds of Herculaneum scrolls trying to prise them open. scienceblog.com.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D367M5M188E/eighteenth-century-scholars-destroyed-hundreds-of)cited 2 times here**SRC** 0D367M5M188E Last edited 27 Oct 2026