Deciphering the Herculaneum Scrolls 📜 🌋 

Take my course LATIN UNCOVERED on StoryLearning, including my original Latin adventure novella "Vir Petasātus" : storylearning.com/polymathy50 ⬅ The Herculaneum Scrolls, a collection of more than 1,800 papyrus scrolls found in the preserved ruins of Herculaneum, near Pompeii, entombed by the volcanic ash of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD, cannot be opened with destroying them, since they are fully carbonized. But a new team of researchers has begun deciphering the scrolls without needing to open them! It's an amazing blend of futuristic technology and archaeology, and is the factual basis of my fictional novella for the StoryLearning Latin course.

Those scrolls, and the urge to help develop technology to read them, were a strong part of my drive to major in Classics and engineering and to continue studying beyond undergrad. Sadly, life, work, taking care of family, took me away from the path I would have wanted. At least I knew there were passionate people pursuing that dream... It's going to be wonderful seeing these time capsules open.

Philodemus would be happy that his works are being rediscovered after 2000 years.

It's a shame that 700 scrolls were destroyed. You'd think that, after attempting to unroll two or three, they'd figure out that, maybe, that wasn't such a good idea. Of course, expecting them to think, "Let's just leave these alone. Maybe in three-hundred years or so somebody will figure out how to see inside of them," might have been a bit much to ask.

what a time to be alive, it took hundreds of years to get there. Thank god they just waited until the technology was ready and didn't just tear them apart hoping for some scraps of words. now finger's crossed there is some good, missing stuff, possibilities are endless... histories (so many missing books of Polybius), biographies, scientific texts, languages (Claudius' book on Etruscan)...

This has been the most exciting written archeology discovery since Rosetta stone was decoded.

They will decipher the scrolls and they will all turn out to be invoices for the sale of olive oil

May Sappho's poems be one of the scrolls. It would be the greatest literary discovery of the century

Waiting for Aristotle's book on Comedy (still hoping)

If we discover additional works of Aristotle and Plato. They are hundreds of them. Imagine the literary wealth.

I told this newly found discovery to everybody I know that we can read books from 2000 years ago basically from a library from Pompeii (Herculenium) but no one cared, thank gosh you popped up in my feed! ❤ LOVE YOU BRO! Thank you for sharing!

🤞Claudius' histories🤞Claudius' histories🤞

I really needed this video today. Sometimes what you need in life is to have someone exuberantly share his joy with you.

🤞lost works of Ovid or Claudius' history of the Etruscans... it's gonna be tax-records isn't it

Here's hoping for the missing books of Livy!😊

I hope they will find the complete Historiae of Sallustius, Cicero's Hortensius and Caesars "De lingua Latina".

"PITVITA ME TENET" (I've caught a cold)- Pompeian graffiti

700 have been unrolled and destroyed? You'd think that after one was unrolled and destroyed, someone would have said, “Well, this doesn't work, so let's never do that again.”

"And the Scrolls have foretold of black wings in the cold, that when brothers wage war come unfurled, Alduin, bane of kings, ancient shadow unbound with a hunger to swallow the world!"

Luke is SO EXCITED! A kid in a toy store! (So am I!)

From the article "Unlocking Antiquity" in City Journal: "The last 15 columns-about 5 percent-of the unwrapped scroll can now be read and are being translated by a team of classical scholars. Their work is hard, as many words are missing and many letters are too faint to be read. “I have a translation but I’m not happy with it,” says a member of the team, Richard Janko of the University of Michigan. The scholars recently spent a session debating whether a letter in the ancient Greek manuscript was an omicron or a pi."

Fun Fact: Heculaneum is simply the Latin Speakers way of saying: Herakleion 🇬🇷 in Greek of Course There are MANY "Herakleio" cities around the Med, on Crete island in Greece for example 💙

What a time to be alive!

It is a wonderful achievement, but unfortunately there are not 1800 intact scrolls as many have been destroyed in attempts to unroll them before. I think the true number of intact scrolls is c. 300. If a book length text would take about 3-4 scrolls that suggest that somewhere near 100 new books will be 'virtually' unwrapped and read in the near future- a huge increase in the number of ancient texts available to us. And then, one can hope that archaeologists will dig further in the unexcavated parts of the Villa where it is very likely there remains the main library of Greek and Latin texts. That could be 100s if not 1000s of scrolls, with a treasure trove of lost texts and hitherto unknown ancient literature. One thing I find particularly exciting is that there was a bust of Sappho in the excavated rooms (now in the Naples museum) which may indicate that her writing was particularly prized by the Villa's owners, and so perhaps there is a copy of the 9 books of her poetry edited in the Alexandrian library in Herculaneum. That would truly be a wonderful find!

What an amazing news! I wonder how many of these "libraries" there were in all the cities of the empire. We lost them all.

As an Epicurean, I really hope there is the discovery of extant text from the Hegemon himself!

The power of these Scrolls is beyond human comprehension. Only the dragonborn should...

Appreciate your content more when it includes books/scrolls and deciphering a text!

Whoa, this is great. OK, Caesar's grammatical papers and the Etruscan dictionary. We are going to find you. Well, maybe not but the hopes are there.

I ADORE your channel, Luke! Every time I see that you've uploaded something new, it makes my day!

Please keep updating us with translations when you can on any “new” ancient texts! I wonder if we’ll get any insight from how the library was organized if it was (hoping the more interesting texts are the ones we haven’t destroyed).

Exciting times we live in to see this beginning to happen. The little bit you translated about rare foods being most desirable really tracks with what I have read and cooked from Apicius.

That's a fantastic news ! Please keep us aware and share any information about the scrolls ans the translations if you have any more information to provide to us.

The human love of novel foods is a wonderfully universal thing to have for a first translatable text. Though, all this talk of novel foods and rolled-up scrolls does leave me wanting a lamb gyro.

I'm pretty sure I would've never found out about the scrolls without you Luke. 1.8k!! Amazing. I hope by the time I get discharged from my draft next year, we will have news of, idk, a lost work of literature or history. GOOSEBUMPS!

Wow, they work fast on the uncovering. Last I heard was the scroll with "Purple" on it. So I consider those 5 % deciphering to be fast work.

This is truly the most exciting thing I have heard in months. Keep us informed!!!

Hopefully they find a copy of Pliny the Elder's Histories.

I'm on the edge of my seat for this to begin with, but your enthusiasm is contagious! So excited for this!

I have been waiting years for this news! 🎉 The heavy sadness I carry for the lost scrolls of the library in Alexandria as well as the initial Herculáneum scrolls that were mistaken as charcoal and used as fuel is lifted by the hope of what will be found with these new scanning techniques. What an incredibly exciting time to be alive. Thank you, Luke, for sharing the fruits of your excitement and interest. I can’t wait to share this news with my children at school pick up today. The evening before last, my 11 year old daughter and I were discussing the structure of the Pantheon, both it’s size, integrity, and location. After retrieving and opening the box of old photographs from some of my travels to Rome, she found my small pumice stones that I picked up on the ground in Pompeii. My 14 yo daughter and 9 yo son then joined in the lively discussion about the photos I got of little shops and mosaic floors of the homes I passed while strolling the streets of this preserved ancient city. I am so grateful that you share your passion for the ancient world on you tube. I was lucky to have an amazing Latin teacher my freshman year of high school. He loved the language, but left an even bigger impression by his passion for all things of the Ancient Roman world. He shared the history and culture in a way that inspired me to continue to study and consume everything available for the past 30 years with no end in sight. Thank you for providing my children’s generation with exciting passionate learning medium. They love your videos and have utilized them as supplemental study aides for their class work. My 14 yo daughter uses llpsi for her 8th grade Latin class and enjoys studying with your videos. My 11 yo 6th grader had really been struggling with her first Ancient Greek class and after finding your videos for her text book “Athenaze”, she is enjoying the language more and improving her skill. I especially love when my 9 yo 3rd grade son watches your videos with me and gets upset and corrects the pronunciation of your Latin. This provides opportunities to discuss the differences between Classical and Ecclesiastical pronunciations and how neither is incorrect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

This is something really incredible as they scan the papyri and with the help of artificial intelligence decipher his content. Hopefully these ancient texts will show more evidences like misspellings that will allow us to have a more and more accurate view of the phonology of ancient greek.

I would be so happy if they found another ancient architectural treatise that we could compare with Vitruvius!

They need to unbury the rest.

Incredible! You can do the first audio book.

This is one of the best news I heard in a while. Begging the Gods for some Aristotle or Sappho. Or Pliny, or Sulla's autobiograpy (I would be interested to know what the man had to say for himself). Basically any new text will be a blessing.

It's amazing what technology has allowed us to do! I've been keeping tabs on the scrolls for some time know and I'm so glad that progress has been made. (also as a sidenote: what are your thoughts on the duolingo course on latin? is it sufficient?)

I want to read heraclitus' book _On Nature._ I hope they find it there.

Amazing! 300 scrolls and chances to find something truly special, and who knows how many scrolls are still hiding beneath the earth? Let's hope for a ridiculously large number.

If any christian text emerged it would be sensational since by definition it would have been written in the Apostolic age.

Amazing video on an amazing advancement which could lead to amzing discoveries! Thanks!

This gives me joy 🤷🏽‍♀️🌹❤️❤️❤️❤️ Yeah, I studied Latin in high school

That is phanomemenal!!! As so as the stone of Rosetta for the old Egypt Language. And to the finish give the Overture of Mozarts "Zauberflöte" in a historical recording.

My hope is they'll find the complete works of Sappho in that library.

Those scrolls are such precious insights into life in the early Roman Imperial era!

This is so incredibly exciting!

Dear Mr. Rainiery, What does "Intermediate" entail? Does it mean that one is able to sort of read a language;

Be well, Lucius! Ēgo🫡 nos! I love you! Guesundheit!

I like that you used ghost busters.. this very much akin to catching a ghost.

Wonderful!😊

I'm really hoping they'll find the works of some early Greek writers like Xanthus of Lydia, Hecataeus of Miletus and Hellanicus of Lesbos. 🤗

The worst thing about learning Latin is that every time you hear about some cool text from antiquity, it's written in fricking greek!!! 😂

Luke, is it possible to buy your novella without the class? I want to read it, but I already know Latin.

I wonder how many are copies of writings that were thought completely lost in the fire of the Great Library of Alexandra? What an amazing technological advancement.

The tech behind this blows my teeny little mind🤯🤯🤯

Thanks for some of your deciphering of the scrolls, Luke. I also heard the story on 60 Minutes. And, have visited the Getty Villa aka Villa dei Papiri numerous times since the '80s. The Herculaneum recreation in Los Angeles is as well, celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year.

This is super exciting news! :D

NEW POLÝMATHY VIDEO JUST DROPPED

Pompejanum pete! Fortes Fortuna adiuvat!🌋⛵

I have never seen youso excited! I hope you realise your dreams very soon.

Imagine heating a record and rolling it into a scroll, taking X-rays and using AI to play the music.

This is amazing news indeed! Imagine finding another great work on par with the Iliad after all this time. Great video as always. Any plans to do a Greek Uncovered? Thanks for all your amazing content Luke ❤

I'm on Chapter 4 of the story now. It is a challenge, but is so much fun! It's taking me a long time, but I'm really enjoying reading something with "new" Latin vocabulary.

I'd love it if they turn out to be something epic or historical work but I'd love it just as much if it was "just" something mundane like birth or census records, a collection of cook books or simply the ledger of some bath house. The next _De Bello Gallico_ would be awesome but knowing Quintus Fabius Longinus spends a Sestertius every other Veneris on the cute Greek femboy masseur has a charm of its own.

Not only you are able to retrieve over 2000 years anchient scripts,but also rediscover old forgotten words that are lost to time. Now we are able to reinsert it in the dictionary.

Well, these are great news! Αἰέν ἀριστεύειν... Εύγε!

Incredible!

Interessantíssimo.

I've been dreaming about this kind of thing for a long time. Someone finds a forgotten library somewhere and we can finally read authors we've never met. I will be amazing! Who knows?

Cool stuff! You will no doubt do many videos about these as technology advances rapidly and we should get more long transcripts, so you can maybe drop in something more about why they are written in Greek, not Latin in some of them.

Thanks👍🏼

Hey, In in Herakleion CRETE in Greece right now! 👋🏻 ΕΛΛΑΣ is Everywhere 🇬🇷

I hope they find the Hermocrates (a friend of Socrates), i.e. the lost dialogue of Plato, at least according to the PC game Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis 😀

So damn exciting

This is wonderful news! Where are there scrolls in similar condition? What might we learn? What works of the ancients will we add to our library?

Start at 9:40 to hear what they say - very little is known so far.

08:55 almost all Latin and Greek is covered by 500 Loeb books. Reading 1 per week means roughly 10 years to go through ancient spurces

Get well soon Loukas 👋🏻

"tricorder." .. _"•sighs•_ *archeological* tricorder."

8:54 This is interesting. How big a volume of texts are we talking about precisely when referring to classical Greek and Latin? And what is the date defining the end of classical period for writers. The thing is, there are are plenty of writers worth reading even after that date, whichever date it is, but let's say there is such a date. If I understand correctly, Loeb's editions for example just span a few shelves. That's doable in a lifetime, even allowing enough time for other activities, including not only those necessary for survival (eating, sleeping, housekeeping etc.) but even some leisure time!

Please can you translate the Septuagint XXL? If not do you know if a decent Ancient Greek translator? Thank you in advance!!

That's amazing, thank you for this. Did I see correctly? Was that the Byzantine c instead of the sigma that is being used? Was that in use as early as 79 AD?

Fun fact from the future (which I totally live in): The last scroll ends “Oh Zeus, the mountain! AAAAAAaaaaaaaaggghhhhh…

That's the Dead Sea Scrolls for Latin lovers.

i’m trying not to be annoyed about the destroyed scrolls. i know the previous historians were trying to do good, but i wish they had saved it for us to do with our magical technology!

I know you've mentioned bits about Rustic Latin pronunciation here and there, but would you be willing to make a dedicated video about the Pompeiian pronunciation of Latin? I think it would be fun to learn to speak both Latin and Greek like a Pompeiian, haha. It would be like speaking the Kansai dialects of 1st century Italy! めっちゃええやん! :P

Hey Luke! Are you planning on making something like LLPSI for Ancient Greek? It would be helpful for so many people.

This is impatient of me, but I really wish we could get those scrolls they're working on now! If I may ask, Magister, is there any guesses that you have about what they'll find? What're you most hoping for? Thanks for making a video on this, Luke!!

Hoping for anything from the Eleatics!

FASCINATING

Good researching. This is the most I have read from the scrolls. I suspect they have been slow to release the contents because, this ML level of AI requires an expert to verify.