Researchers are using artificial intelligence and X-ray technology to recover lost philosophical texts from scrolls that were burned during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

研究人員正利用人工智慧與 X 光技術，恢復在公元 79 年維蘇威火山爆發期間被燒毀的哲學文本。

The project focuses on a group of papyrus scrolls found in the 18th century in a villa in Herculaneum. In the past, experts tried to unroll these documents by hand, but the burned material was too fragile and often broke. Furthermore, because the charred papyrus and the ink looked almost identical, most of the texts remained impossible to read.

該計畫聚焦於 18 世紀在赫庫蘭尼姆一座別墅中發現的一組莎草紙卷軸。過去，專家嘗試用手展開這些文件，但燒毀的材質過於脆弱且經常破損。此外，由於燒焦的莎草紙與墨水看起來幾乎一模一樣，導致大部分文本仍無法閱讀。

Recently, the University of Kentucky and the National Library of Naples started the 'Vesuvius Challenge.' By using particle accelerators and machine-learning algorithms, they have developed a method called 'virtual unwrapping.' This process allows researchers to extract text without damaging the scrolls. Consequently, they have recovered large parts of works by the philosopher Philodemus, as well as an unknown document from 200-300 B.C. about ethics.

近期，肯塔基大學與拿坡里國家圖書館啟動了「維蘇威挑戰賽」。透過使用粒子加速器與機器學習演算法，他們開發了一種稱為「虛擬展開」的方法。此過程讓研究人員能在不損壞卷軸的情況下提取文字。因此，他們恢復了哲學家 Philodemus 的大部分作品，以及一份關於倫理學、年代約在公元前 200 至 300 年的未知文件。

Experts emphasized that moving from reading small fragments to recovering full arguments is a major change in the field. Although only 10% of the collection has been processed, the project is now looking for language experts to help interpret the data. To speed up this progress, a $1 million prize has been offered to anyone who can fully decode a single scroll by next June.

專家強調，從閱讀小碎片轉向恢復完整論點，是該領域的一項重大變革。儘管目前僅處理了 10% 的藏品，但該計畫目前正在尋找語言專家以協助解釋數據。為了加速這一進程，計畫提供了 100 萬美元的獎金，授予任何能在明年六月前完全解碼單一卷軸的人。

The use of AI has made it possible to read ancient texts that were previously lost, although more than 600 scrolls still need to be processed.

人工智慧的使用使得閱讀先前失傳的古代文本成為可能，儘管仍有 600 多卷卷軸需要處理。