Herculaneum

Researchers have deliberately burned a modern papyrus scroll to recreate the conditions that carbonised the ancient library of Herculaneum, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The experiment suggests traces of lead in ancient ink could reveal which of the still-unopened scrolls contain readable text, helping prioritise which fragile artefacts to scan next in efforts to recover words lost for nearly 2,000 years.

Researchers made their own carbonized papyrus scrolls, spiked with lead-based ink, to test ways of reading the real Herculaneum scrolls damaged by Mount Vesuvius. The study found the lead-laced ink glows up to 25 times brighter under X-rays, which could help locate and decipher text on the genuine charred scrolls without unrolling them.