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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:06,120 ALICE ROBERTS: 'The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79... 2 00:00:08,120 --> 00:00:13,040 '..is perhaps the most famous volcanic eruption in history. 3 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:16,840 'We're all familiar with the amazing things it preserved - 4 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,520 'the architecture and frescoes of Pompeii... 5 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:24,400 '..beautiful statues... 6 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,120 '..and the remains of many of the people 7 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:31,600 'who perished that fateful day. 8 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:37,800 'But the volcanic ash also preserved something seemingly impossible - 9 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:42,320 'a huge collection of ancient scrolls.' 10 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:47,080 What we have for the first time ever is an ancient library. 11 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:54,200 'These scrolls are our only link to so much lost ancient wisdom. 12 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:57,600 'But ever since they were discovered over two centuries ago, 13 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:03,640 'most attempts to open and read them have reduced them to dust.' 14 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:07,520 A lot of damage was done trying to unroll them. 15 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:10,600 'But that could be about to change. 16 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:15,240 'For four years, we've had exclusive access to the incredible work 17 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:19,360 'being undertaken by Professor Brent Seales. 18 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,600 'His work is making headlines across the globe, 19 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:25,480 'as he believes that he'll be the first person 20 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:27,440 'in nearly 2,000 years 21 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:32,080 'to read words inside these ancient scrolls.' 22 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,240 The library basically said, "Hell, no." 23 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:36,240 They thought you were crazy. I think maybe. 24 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:37,320 SHE LAUGHS 25 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,320 'We've already had some tantalising glimpses 26 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:45,520 'of the treasures locked inside this invisible library...' 27 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:47,960 We haven't got this ancient text anywhere else. 28 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,760 No. It is the only copy. 29 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:57,600 '..and if Brent succeeds, his work could change history.' 30 00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,400 What I'm now seeing 31 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:01,680 is actually the thing that I've been looking for. 32 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:04,560 It's incredibly exciting. 33 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:10,480 'Join me as I uncover the lost scrolls of Vesuvius.' 34 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:27,480 In the year 79 CE, 35 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:30,200 Mount Vesuvius, overlooking the Bay Of Naples, 36 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,520 erupted with cataclysmic force. 37 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:39,960 With the energy of 100,000 atomic bombs... 38 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:46,680 ..wreaking destruction on villages, towns and cities, 39 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,320 killing an estimated 16,000 people. 40 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:58,760 But that destruction left a time capsule, 41 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:02,960 most famously at the iconic Roman town of Pompeii, 42 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,520 and here at Herculaneum, just eight miles away, 43 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,960 where the archaeological preservation is astonishing. 44 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:23,280 'Herculaneum was a much smaller city than Pompeii, 45 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:26,240 'but it was bursting with beautiful mosaics 46 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:30,080 'and statues and vast villas. 47 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:34,000 'The desirable dwellings of influential elites. 48 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:38,720 'And even though much of it still lies unexcavated, 49 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:42,800 'what has been unearthed here is far better preserved 50 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:45,240 'than at its more famous neighbour.' 51 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:50,520 We have multi-storey buildings, 52 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:54,120 beautiful painted frescoes, intricate mosaics, 53 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,360 and even wooden furniture. 54 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:06,640 'Herculaneum gives us an extraordinarily authentic view 55 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:10,440 'of what everyday life was like in the Roman Empire. 56 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:13,920 'But in fact, 57 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:15,480 'the most precious treasures 58 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:17,920 'to have been uncovered at Herculaneum 59 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:22,160 'aren't the buildings or the gorgeous statues. 60 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,640 'They're something much more important. 61 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,160 'And almost all of them are kept here 62 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:32,000 'in the National Library in Naples.' 63 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:35,160 Look at these. 64 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:37,760 I think you'd just walk past them in a museum. 65 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:40,720 They look like lumps of charcoal. 66 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:42,280 Burned logs, perhaps. 67 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:46,880 But if you look more closely, 68 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:51,880 you can see that each one of them is a tightly wound roll of paper. 69 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,240 It's a papyrus scroll, 70 00:04:54,280 --> 00:04:57,880 carbonised at the moment when Mount Vesuvius erupted 71 00:04:57,920 --> 00:04:59,440 nearly 2,000 years ago. 72 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:02,720 And hundreds of these have been excavated 73 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:05,600 from one villa at Herculaneum, 74 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:08,840 representing the only surviving library 75 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:10,800 from the ancient world. 76 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:16,600 The library for us is an absolute treasure, 77 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:20,800 because it may reveal many more secrets 78 00:05:20,840 --> 00:05:24,840 and especially give us many more texts 79 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:26,840 of which we currently have no idea, 80 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:29,080 and this is all extremely exciting. 81 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,000 'The scrolls were preserved 82 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:37,800 'because the heat of Vesuvius, over 400 degrees Celsius, 83 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:41,840 'transformed them into lumps of charcoal. 84 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:46,600 'But that same preservation made them extremely brittle, 85 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:48,800 'and almost every time 86 00:05:48,840 --> 00:05:52,320 'anyone has tried to open them to read inside, 87 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:54,000 'they've fallen to pieces. 88 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:57,760 'These scrolls could be a goldmine 89 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:01,680 'of lost ancient wisdom and knowledge. 90 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:03,920 'But the secrets locked inside them 91 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:05,800 'have remained unreadable.' 92 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:12,760 A lot of damage was done trying to open them, unroll them. 93 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:17,560 Every new attempt to open these charred scrolls physically 94 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:21,720 is going to lose letters, words, you know, whole columns. 95 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:27,120 'One person, though, is trying to change that. 96 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,120 'It's a mission worthy of Indiana Jones, 97 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:32,600 'but the man attempting to reveal the secrets 98 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:37,040 'of the lost ancient library isn't an archaeologist.' 99 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:38,960 My name is Brent Seales. 100 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:42,120 I'm a professor of computer science at the University of Kentucky. 101 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:45,400 I want to be able to read what's inside a Herculaneum scroll 102 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:46,880 without having to open it. 103 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,360 For a computer scientist to end up stumbling 104 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:52,560 into a world-class archaeological site, 105 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:55,840 and then to think about reading material from a library, 106 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:57,600 that was a big leap for me. 107 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,560 'We've been given exclusive access to follow Brent 108 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:07,240 'on his quest to read the scrolls, and today I'm meeting him 109 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:10,800 'at the place where the precious scrolls are kept.' 110 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:13,440 When did you first come here? 111 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:15,760 I came here two decades ago, first time. 112 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:18,280 I was completely entranced by the idea 113 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:19,880 that we might be able to read something 114 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:21,560 from inside this collection. 115 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,360 'Brent's plan is to scan the scrolls 116 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:27,520 'and then use artificial intelligence, AI, 117 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,480 'that he has designed, to read them digitally. 118 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:34,640 'He hopes that a computer will be able to detect ink on the papyrus, 119 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:40,200 'allowing him to virtually unroll the scrolls without damaging them.' 120 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,840 The goal is to recover something that looks like the original state. 121 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,920 Right. And the original state is that this papyrus 122 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:51,040 would be unrolled flat on a table, and someone would read it. 123 00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:53,960 And so we want to reverse the damage 124 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,600 and recreate a version of that that is exactly the same, 125 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:00,800 so that a human can read what's there. 126 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:02,520 It is mind blowing, 127 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:06,160 because the original discovery of these scrolls is exciting 128 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,280 cos you've got a library, but then it's intensely frustrating, 129 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,560 because you've got a library where it's locked away. 130 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:13,960 But with technology, 131 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,920 I mean, how much of this library do you think might be readable? 132 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:19,600 I tend to be an optimistic person, 133 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:21,800 and I think we're gonna read everything that's there. 134 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:23,320 That's what I think. 135 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:25,640 'I admire Brent's optimism, 136 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:27,040 'but he's not the first person 137 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,200 'to have attempted this virtually impossible task. 138 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:35,760 'And this is a project that he's already been working on 139 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:37,480 'for nearly two decades. 140 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:41,920 'So, what's keeping him going?' 141 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:44,200 I'm a pretty tenacious guy. 142 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:46,080 It's the biggest challenge, 143 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:48,640 and it also stands to be the biggest impact 144 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:50,640 that I could ever have. 145 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:54,280 'Coming up, 146 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:56,480 'I want to know what could be contained 147 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:58,720 'inside this lost library.' 148 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,800 I want to find more Aristotle. It would be incredible. 149 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:07,800 'And we get exclusive access to Brent scanning the scrolls.' 150 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,000 This is the biggest technical challenge in my career. 151 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:28,720 'For the past four years, 152 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:30,600 'we've had exclusive access 153 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:33,600 'to the work of Professor Brent Seales 154 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:35,680 'as he attempts to be the first person 155 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:37,640 'in nearly 2,000 years 156 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:42,640 'to read carbonised papyrus scrolls found at the archaeological site 157 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:45,440 'of Herculaneum in modern Naples. 158 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:48,680 'It's a seemingly impossible task, 159 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:52,640 'but the results could change history.' 160 00:09:52,680 --> 00:09:56,600 We know of many, many works that we do not have. 161 00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:58,880 The Greeks made lists of things, 162 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:01,920 so anything new is obviously exciting. 163 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:05,000 'From fragments of scrolls 164 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:07,680 'that people have managed to open in the past, 165 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:12,400 'we know that the library contained works of ancient Greek philosophy. 166 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:18,480 'But with at least 500 scrolls badly charred and still unopened, 167 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:20,880 'the chances are that this collection 168 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:23,680 'contains many lost books.' 169 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:30,160 It's estimated that around 90% of ancient classical literature 170 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:34,120 has been lost, representing countless plays, 171 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:39,440 poems, volumes of geography, science, and history. 172 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:44,880 And every ancient historian is going to have a particular work 173 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,320 that they wish could be recovered. 174 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:52,320 In some cases, we know what we're missing. 175 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:56,560 Most of Livy's monumental History Of Rome, for instance. 176 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,160 The vast majority of the plays 177 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,960 of the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, 178 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:06,800 and an estimated two thirds of Aristotle's works. 179 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:09,880 But then there must be an enormous amount 180 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,240 that we don't even realise we've lost. 181 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:17,440 And this huge cache of scrolls from Herculaneum 182 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:21,080 represents the possibility of unlocking, 183 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:26,160 of reading ancient knowledge that has lain hidden and unread 184 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:28,560 for nearly 2,000 years. 185 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:32,000 'As a biologist, 186 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:34,720 'I know exactly what I'd love to see revealed 187 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:36,360 'from inside this library.' 188 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:43,360 I want to find more Aristotle. It would be incredible. 189 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,120 His science was just so ahead of its time. 190 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:49,600 His book about how animals were formed, 191 00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:51,000 embryology, basically, 192 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:54,000 it's just mind blowing when you go back and read that, 193 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:55,680 and I just wonder what else. 194 00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:57,680 What else was he thinking about? 195 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:01,240 When you stand here and you look and imagine at what's inside, 196 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,120 you want to use every tool available to try to get in there, right? 197 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:12,320 'Brent's journey to read the scrolls started two decades ago. 198 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:15,000 'But he nearly fell at the first hurdle.' 199 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:21,760 So when you first came to the Library of Naples 200 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:23,920 and said that you might be able to read these scrolls, 201 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:24,960 what did they say to you? 202 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:29,680 I got a letter from the library that... Well, it didn't just say no. 203 00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:31,800 It basically said, "Hell no." Really? 204 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,880 They thought you were crazy. I think maybe. 205 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:36,440 SHE LAUGHS But you persisted. 206 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:38,000 I mean, you could have stopped then. 207 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:40,280 You could have thought, "Well, maybe they're right. 208 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:42,200 "Maybe, you know, nobody's ever gonna read 209 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:44,920 "these Herculaneum scrolls." I really needed to convince them 210 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:47,520 that there was something interesting here that could be done. 211 00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:51,840 'The first step in convincing the rightly cautious curators 212 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:54,560 'that Brent should be granted access 213 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:57,320 'was to prove that he could safely transport them 214 00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,240 'for the necessary scanning. 215 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:03,680 'Brent and his team came up with an ingenious solution.' 216 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:06,880 How do you go about taking one of these, 217 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:10,520 just incredibly delicate objects, and transporting it? 218 00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:12,760 They are really fragile. 219 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:16,080 So, the way we came up with a method for transporting 220 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:20,720 is to make a replica that's the exact shape. 221 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:24,360 And then the replica allows us to build a case that's form-fitting. 222 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:27,520 So this is a 3D-printed model, 223 00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:31,320 a proxy of an actual Herculaneum scroll? 224 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,640 That's exactly right. We captured this shape using photogrammetry, 225 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:38,160 which is a technique that allows us to take images from the outside 226 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:41,600 and then put that together into a three dimensional reconstruction. 227 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:42,640 What's the next stage? 228 00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:45,640 Well, we create the inverse shape, which is the case. 229 00:13:45,680 --> 00:13:49,320 The case is form-fitted with the reverse shape, 230 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:53,400 so that it sits in this little cradle and then is protected 231 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:56,160 and can be transported safely. 232 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:00,200 'Brent felt that he had solved the issue 233 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,440 'of how to transport the scrolls without damaging them. 234 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:06,600 'But the curators of these irreplaceable scrolls 235 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:08,880 'were yet to be convinced. 236 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:13,600 'And then in 2019, he finally had a breakthrough.' 237 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:37,920 'The Institut de France in Paris is one of the only two places 238 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:40,520 'outside the National Library in Naples 239 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:43,320 'to house any of the Herculaneum scrolls. 240 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:47,800 'These ones arrived in France at the start of the 19th century.' 241 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:03,320 'Over 200 years later, 242 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:05,560 'the staff here are responsible 243 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:08,880 'for protecting these precious artefacts.' 244 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:34,880 'Sharing Brent's desire to unlock the mysteries of these papyri, 245 00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:39,800 'Madame Berard has granted him access to the scrolls in her care. 246 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,320 'She's aware of the risk.' 247 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:24,960 'Brent has given the Institut de France 248 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,880 'the bespoke protective cases made by his team... 249 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,920 '..ready for the scrolls to be placed inside.' 250 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:20,000 'With the scrolls safely tucked inside Brent's custom-built cases, 251 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:24,840 'they're transported 360 miles away from their Paris home... 252 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:30,280 '..to Oxfordshire, where Brent is waiting, 253 00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:33,720 'ready to attempt the seemingly impossible. 254 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:39,200 'At Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron, 255 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:42,880 'Brent is hoping he's found X-rays powerful enough 256 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:44,480 'to achieve his goal.' 257 00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:12,600 'This facility can produce very high energy X-rays.' 258 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:19,520 'Ten billion times brighter, in fact. 259 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:24,360 'And exposing the Herculaneum scrolls to these powerful X-rays 260 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:29,120 'could be the crucial first step towards reading what's inside.' 261 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:42,000 'Brent's theory is that the ink inside the scrolls 262 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,320 'should block more of the X-rays than the paper, 263 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:49,560 'allowing him to see a contrast between the letters and the pages. 264 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:53,840 'He's already shown that this can work. 265 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:59,760 'In 2015, he successfully read a 2,000-year-old carbonised scroll 266 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:03,240 'found near En Gedi in Israel.' 267 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:04,880 We were the first to ever have done that. 268 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:09,560 The scroll from En Gedi was a verifiable copy 269 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:11,920 of the first two chapters of Leviticus, 270 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:16,120 and it was verified by scholars outside my group, biblical scholars. 271 00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:18,760 So, fully vetted. 272 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:23,000 'Reading the En Gedi scroll was a major breakthrough. 273 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:25,040 'But the Herculaneum papyri 274 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:27,880 'represent an even greater challenge.' 275 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:29,560 The scroll from En Gedi 276 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:34,360 must have had some metal or impurity in the ink 277 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:36,160 that helped us with the contrast, 278 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:40,120 because it turned out that the writing came directly from the scan. 279 00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,160 What we're finding with Herculaneum 280 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:46,200 is that we don't get a direct signal at the ink in the scan. 281 00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:48,160 It has to do with the chemistry. 282 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:52,160 In the ancient world, the inks were mainly based on carbon, 283 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:54,720 and the papyrus is carbon. 284 00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:56,800 So, it's kind of hard to see the difference 285 00:19:56,840 --> 00:19:58,640 between the background and the foreground. 286 00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:05,920 These came from Paris yesterday on the, uh, on the TGV, 287 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:11,280 through the tunnel, through the, uh, the English Channel. 288 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:16,120 'Today, Madame Berard has brought not only unopened scrolls, 289 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:20,560 'but also loose fragments of papyrus from the Paris collection. 290 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:25,280 'These will allow Brent to test just how effective his method is. 291 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:29,720 'Brent has used his expertise as a computer scientist 292 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,280 'to build a deep-learning artificial intelligence program 293 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:38,160 'to identify where there is ink on the papyrus. 294 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:41,200 'Because these loose fragments contain ink 295 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:43,960 'that's visible to the naked human eye, 296 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:49,840 'they'll allow Brent to check if his AI program actually works.' 297 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:52,920 What we're doing when we image the fragments 298 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:57,320 is we're creating a scientific control. 299 00:20:57,360 --> 00:20:59,320 Because in the data we capture, 300 00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:01,600 we can see what that data looks like, 301 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:06,440 and hopefully tease out what ink actually should be looking like. 302 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:10,440 Yeah. 303 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:15,720 Let me, uh... synch it up with the Allen wrench. 304 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:17,000 So we'll do this. 305 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:20,200 'Once we use those controls, 306 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:24,040 'we have a better sense of what to look for in the data.' 307 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,680 So that's where the artificial intelligence comes in. 308 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:30,720 We've trained a system to be able to see really subtle changes, 309 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:33,440 to go through the data systematically 310 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:36,880 and say, "Does that section look like it has ink, yes or no?" 311 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,480 And the training comes from these open fragments, 312 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:43,200 because by being able to see what's visible, 313 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:45,120 we can make this comparison 314 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:47,520 to what's invisible and hidden. 315 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,960 'After scanning the fragments, it's time for the main event - 316 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,360 'scanning the scrolls.' 317 00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:01,280 Of course, there's this sacred kind of feeling that comes over you 318 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,920 when you're in the presence of something that's 2,000 years old. 319 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:14,560 If we scan the scroll, we can tell what the shape is 320 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:16,120 and how long it might have been. 321 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:22,440 'The scrolls were carbonised in their rolled-up state, 322 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,800 'but they were also contorted and bent out of shape 323 00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:29,040 'by the intense heat and the volcanic ash 324 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,400 'that entombed Herculaneum, 325 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:37,000 'which makes Brent's job of digitally mapping them even harder.' 326 00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:40,800 It's not a perfect cylinder like you envision in your mind 327 00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:43,120 when you think of someone reading a scroll. 328 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,960 They're completely unpredictable in their shape. 329 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:47,640 Now, they are spiral-like, 330 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:51,160 but every twist and turn, every break is chaos inside. 331 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:54,440 'Interpreting the X-rays of the scrolls 332 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:57,480 'involves capturing their internal structure, 333 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,920 'every fold and crease of the papyrus, 334 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,720 'and then virtually unrolling them.' 335 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:05,880 ALARM BLARING 336 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,000 'The aim is to build 337 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,360 'an astonishingly high resolution 3D image 338 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:16,560 'of the inner surface of the scroll. 339 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,040 'Brent's colleague Seth Parker 340 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:22,160 'is making sure the scanning goes to plan.' 341 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,960 To get a complete scan of the whole scroll, 342 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:26,680 I think it would take eight hours. 343 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,280 Um, and then that's about 40 individual scans 344 00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:31,080 that we have to piece together. 345 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:35,640 'These scans will generate enormous volumes of data, 346 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:39,760 'which Brent and his team must assemble and analyse 347 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:41,680 'in order to have any hope 348 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:46,080 'of digitally reconstructing and reading the scrolls.' 349 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:49,080 'This is the biggest technical challenge in my career.' 350 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:52,280 I've learned to just embrace the fact 351 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:54,560 that those challenges make it interesting. 352 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:59,560 I have confidence that what I'm doing will be a major step forward. 353 00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:02,560 'Coming up... 354 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,320 'from the fragments of broken scrolls 355 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:07,720 'comes a brand-new discovery.' 356 00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,600 We haven't got this ancient text anywhere else. No. 357 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:16,480 'And we take Brent inside the place where the scrolls were unearthed.' 358 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:19,640 It's sort of a miracle that they survived. 359 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,680 ALICE ROBERTS: 'One of the things that makes 360 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:49,360 'the Lost Scrolls of Vesuvius so remarkable 361 00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:53,480 'is that they all belonged to a single library. 362 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,920 'That library was housed in a lavish villa 363 00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:59,640 'on the outskirts of Herculaneum. 364 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:01,920 'After the building was discovered, 365 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,520 'it became known as the Villa of The Papyri 366 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:07,760 'after the scrolls inside it. 367 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:15,320 '2,000 years ago, this villa occupied a stunning 800-foot stretch 368 00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:18,920 'of the best and most sought after real estate... 369 00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:24,000 '..spread across almost five acres, 370 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:25,960 'looking out across the sea. 371 00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:31,200 'Arranged around pillared courtyards 372 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,080 'and furnished with lavish gardens, 373 00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:38,720 'it was the finest luxury retreat in a part of the world 374 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,080 'bursting with extravagant homes.' 375 00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:48,440 The Bay of Naples was a very fashionable place to be. 376 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,920 Lots of rich elites had villas there. 377 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:52,360 Later, it's going to become 378 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,560 what's sort of popularly called the playground of the emperors. 379 00:25:56,600 --> 00:26:02,160 The imperial family would have spent a lot of time enjoying the climate 380 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:06,680 and the beautiful natural products that the place had to offer. 381 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,400 'Even in an area frequented by emperors, 382 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:16,560 'the Villa of The Papyri dwarfed any other villa in the area, 383 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,600 'and its scale was complemented 384 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:24,040 'by lavish decoration, striking mosaics 385 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:26,280 'and vibrant wall paintings.' 386 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:31,720 It is extraordinary for its collection of sculptures as well. 387 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:36,160 So there are various different forms of artwork that also survived. 388 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:46,160 'Although Brent has visited Herculaneum before, 389 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,960 'he's never been inside the ruins of the villa 390 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,760 'where the scrolls he wants to open were found. 391 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:57,160 'So today, he's going deep underground 392 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:00,200 'with Professor Mantha Zarmakoupi. 393 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:04,440 'She's the world's leading expert on the Villa of The Papyri. 394 00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:07,320 'She knows the site better than anyone.' 395 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:12,520 So, the villa was discovered in the 18th century through tunnels. 396 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:14,240 You can see a column here. 397 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:17,080 Another column here. 398 00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:24,760 'Herculaneum was first uncovered accidentally in the 18th century, 399 00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:29,880 'when farmers digging wells began to unearth ancient Roman artefacts. 400 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:32,560 'Once it became apparent 401 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:35,280 'that a major settlement could be buried here, 402 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:39,160 'people began digging tunnels deep into the volcanic rock 403 00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:43,520 'to find out exactly what lay beneath the surface. 404 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:45,360 'It was dangerous work.' 405 00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,200 It was a very difficult operation, so they made as much effort 406 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:52,800 to create like stability in the space that they were working. 407 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:54,400 Even the most recent excavations, 408 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,800 the workers were very much concerned about the stability of the area, 409 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,120 and they were not happy to be working in the tunnels. 410 00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:06,080 'Among the buildings discovered was this huge villa. 411 00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:14,280 'Precious artefacts were found throughout it. 412 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:19,360 'And then the excavators came across a trail of charred papyri.' 413 00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:22,200 When they first found them, they didn't understand 414 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,000 what the value was, what they were. 415 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,160 They thought they were just like wooden sticks or something. 416 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:31,840 'Some of the papyri were discarded or even burnt as fuel 417 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:36,560 'before writing was spotted on some fragments that had broken away, 418 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:40,680 'revealing that they were, in fact, ancient texts.' 419 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:45,080 The rolls that were found there for a large part were in a room 420 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,200 that the Roman architectural historians called the Tablinum. 421 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:52,000 It's kind of between two open areas. 422 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:55,960 'The tablinum was similar to a study or a home office, 423 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,720 'where the owner likely read his books. 424 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:04,000 'Many of the scrolls were found not sorted neatly on shelves, 425 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,920 'but stacked in piles or packed into crates, 426 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:10,440 'almost as if somebody had been attempting 427 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:14,200 'to move them to safety when Vesuvius erupted. 428 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:19,560 'A trail of scrolls led back to another area where more were found. 429 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:23,160 'Here, they were more neatly organised.' 430 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:25,640 This is the room that has been associated 431 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:27,240 with the library of the villa. 432 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,960 This is where most of the scrolls were found stacked. 433 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,240 It feels like a real rescue, doesn't it? 434 00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:35,640 When you see the context right where it was found. 435 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:39,720 It's sort of a miracle that they survived and were discovered. 436 00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:47,360 'So, who built this once stunning villa and its incredible library? 437 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:54,480 'The evidence we have suggests a man of immense wealth and influence, 438 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:57,680 'a Roman nobleman who brushed shoulders 439 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,120 'with the most powerful people of his day.' 440 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:07,640 His name was Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, 441 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,600 and he was the owner of this wonderful villa 442 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:12,120 and everything it contained, 443 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,880 including those scrolls. 444 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:19,960 We have his name on inscriptions found in Herculaneum. 445 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:22,480 He's the most powerful Roman we know of who was there. 446 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:26,800 And the richer you were, the larger your villa. 447 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:31,000 This villa is the biggest villa there. 448 00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:32,480 We put two and two together. 449 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:36,200 Everyone seems happy enough to believe that it was his. 450 00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:41,240 'Piso was a powerful Roman politician 451 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,920 'and savvy enough to use his influence 452 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:45,920 'to benefit his family and himself. 453 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,080 'Perhaps his greatest achievement 454 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:52,880 'was marrying his daughter, Calpurnia, 455 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,520 'to an up-and-coming Roman general. 456 00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:59,160 'His name was Julius Caesar.' 457 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:04,160 That gave Piso a very, very strong political connection. 458 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,600 To have a son-in-law like Julius Caesar in this period 459 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,680 gave him a certain amount of political influence 460 00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:12,760 and protection as well. 461 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:17,840 He got to the top in 58BCE and became consul in Rome. 462 00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:21,000 So that's one of the chief political positions. 463 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,320 'A man as wealthy and well-connected as Piso 464 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:29,840 'would have filled his library with great works 465 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:31,960 'from across the ancient world, 466 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,640 'from philosophy to plays to history. 467 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,800 'And it's believed that whoever inherited the villa 468 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:46,520 'after Piso's death continued to add to this collection. 469 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,720 'When the Villa of the Papyri was destroyed by Vesuvius 470 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,160 'in the year 79... 471 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:57,800 'that library was preserved inside it, 472 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:02,000 'where it was discovered 250 years ago.' 473 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:07,840 Over the two-and-a-half centuries 474 00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:10,080 since the Herculaneum scrolls were discovered, 475 00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:15,440 there have been numerous attempts to unroll and read them. 476 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:17,240 And as you can see here, 477 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,080 with varying levels of success. 478 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:26,000 Every time someone tries to do this, it results in destruction. 479 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:29,960 Nobody has attempted a physical unrolling 480 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:34,120 of any of the Herculaneum scrolls now for 20 years. 481 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:39,840 But what we can do is go back to these fragments 482 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:45,680 that have been unrolled and apply modern technology to them. 483 00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,400 And there's been an astonishing recent breakthrough. 484 00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,440 'Valeria Piano is a researcher in classical philosophy 485 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:03,280 'at the University of Florence. 486 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:06,720 'A few years ago, she was studying fragments from 487 00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:12,240 'one particular Herculaneum scroll in the National Library of Naples. 488 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:17,160 'Valeria was trying to identify the author of the scroll. 489 00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:20,720 'I can't imagine where you'd even begin.' 490 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,120 I'm looking at this, and it just looks so charred. 491 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:29,280 It seems impossible that you would be able 492 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:31,720 to actually read anything on this. 493 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,200 What methods do you use to look at that writing? 494 00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,160 Cos obviously with the naked eye, we can't see anything. 495 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,360 So digital imaging is transforming our ability 496 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,400 to read these open scrolls as well. 497 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:23,640 It's bringing together literature and science, archaeology and history 498 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:25,320 in a really exciting way. 499 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:27,840 So, tell me about the discovery that you made 500 00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:29,120 with this particular papyrus, 501 00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:31,800 because you had a bit of a breakthrough. 502 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:36,480 'The Latin scroll Valeria was studying had previously been logged 503 00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:39,480 'as a record of a political speech. 504 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:44,280 'But poring over the text, Valeria spotted a key phrase 505 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,240 'that convinced her this was something different - 506 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:49,480 'an important lost book.' 507 00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:03,760 'For Valeria, these few words had momentous significance. 508 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:08,600 'The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger, in his own works, 509 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,120 'had used this exact phrase to refer to a history 510 00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:13,800 'of the Roman Civil War 511 00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:17,560 'composed by his father, Seneca the Elder.' 512 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,960 We best know Seneca the Elder as a historian. 513 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:53,680 He wrote a history of his own time from the time of the Civil Wars. 514 00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:57,280 Certainly, he was also interested in cataloguing the political events 515 00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,440 that were taking place in Rome. 516 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:04,080 So, you'd worked out that this was the history of Seneca the Elder? 517 00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:13,080 This is... I mean, it is mind-blowing, Valeria. 518 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:15,880 It doesn't exist in any other library. 519 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,280 We haven't got this ancient text anywhere else. 520 00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:22,120 I've got goose bumps. You must have... 521 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,440 I mean, that must have been such an incredible moment 522 00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:25,840 when you realised that it was. 523 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:30,840 Yeah. 524 00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:36,080 'It's astonishing that Valeria has been able to identify 525 00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:41,520 'this previously lost work from mere scraps of papyrus. 526 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:43,960 'And her discovery tells us 527 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,800 'there must be many more amazing works hidden 528 00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:50,920 'in the unread scrolls waiting to be found. 529 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:53,360 'Coming up... 530 00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,640 'After four years of following Brent's story, 531 00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:00,480 'we present his results in a global exclusive.' 532 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:04,600 What I'm now seeing is actually the thing that I've been looking for. 533 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:06,760 It's incredibly exciting. 534 00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:30,720 'It's been four long, tough years 535 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:36,600 'since Brent and his team scanned the Herculaneum scroll from Paris.' 536 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:38,640 Maybe struggle's just part of the story. 537 00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:40,280 Cos if you look at the material, 538 00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:42,880 tell me that the material is not struggling. 539 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:45,240 I mean, it's been carbonised for 2,000 years 540 00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:47,840 and pulled from the ground 250 years ago. 541 00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:49,720 And now here we are, still struggling 542 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:51,920 to just sort of redeem it and reconcile it. 543 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:54,080 I think that's just a major theme in the story. 544 00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:05,040 'Brent's team have spent thousands of working hours 545 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,440 'analysing the data that they gathered from the scans 546 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:10,280 'at Diamond Light Source. 547 00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:16,000 'Today, they can finally see the results.' 548 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,320 You can see the wraps of the scroll with the core in the middle 549 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:21,960 spiralling outward. 550 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:24,200 Of course, it's very complicated. 551 00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:27,240 So here we have one slice. And if you take that slice 552 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:29,800 and then stack another one on top of it 553 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:31,400 and just keep doing that, 554 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:35,080 you can start to get a sense for the 3D structure 555 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:36,920 that these scrolls have inside. 556 00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:42,360 'The vast amount of data 557 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:47,040 'has been transformed into these remarkably detailed models, 558 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:52,360 'each one a perfect digital recreation of the inside 559 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:53,920 'of a Herculaneum scroll.' 560 00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:58,200 Of course we have this complicated 3D structure. 561 00:38:58,240 --> 00:38:59,680 How do we find the ink in it? 562 00:38:59,720 --> 00:39:00,840 That's the big question. 563 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:04,200 So what we do is we actually just focus on one portion, 564 00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:07,440 one part of a rap that you can clearly identify, 565 00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:10,880 either in the slice images or in 3D, as we're looking at here. 566 00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:15,600 And once you find that rap, you focus on it and trace its shape 567 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:19,440 and extract it, and only look at the data relating to that shape. 568 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:24,200 Each of these coloured lines represent a single layer, 569 00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:26,640 or part of a layer, from the wraps of the scroll 570 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,520 that we've identified and pulled out on its own. 571 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,760 'This process is called segmentation, 572 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:39,080 'isolating an individual layer deep within the scroll, 573 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:42,720 'allowing a more detailed analysis of the data. 574 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:47,640 'Brent's team have been attempting to train an AI algorithm 575 00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:50,840 'to identify any writing inside, 576 00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:54,640 'but has that part of the plan worked? 577 00:39:54,680 --> 00:40:00,560 'Can anything be seen on this segmented layer of the scroll? 578 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,680 'Brent made the bold decision to make his software 579 00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:05,840 'and his data open source, 580 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:09,360 'meaning that people from all over the world could help him 581 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:13,480 'to achieve his goal of reading the scrolls.' 582 00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,600 There's been a lot of collaboration and sharing, which has been great. 583 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,920 In fact, we've set up a competitive science environment 584 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:25,480 that has inspired people around the world to contribute to this project. 585 00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:28,280 So, there's a global community now talking about this work. 586 00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:32,720 And by global, I mean thousands of people, not tens or hundreds, 587 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:35,240 thousands of people talking about this work. 588 00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:40,920 'This is what two decades of work have been leading towards for Brent, 589 00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:43,760 'a moment some said would never come.' 590 00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:45,320 This seems like a moon-shot, 591 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:48,880 you know, reading a scroll from Herculaneum without opening it. 592 00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:50,400 There were so many things 593 00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:53,240 that I was told we would not be able to do. 594 00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:54,960 We couldn't get access. 595 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,720 We couldn't move anything to a different place. 596 00:40:57,760 --> 00:40:59,920 The technology wouldn't work. 597 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:03,960 It's been very real that we might not achieve our goals. 598 00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:05,400 Now that I look back on it, 599 00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:09,520 after 20 years' worth of aggregation and accumulation of results, 600 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:14,560 it actually is kind of astounding to realise that all those people 601 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:17,600 who said that we couldn't do all those things were wrong. 602 00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:22,160 They were wrong. 603 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:35,720 What you're seeing behind me is the first ever set of text 604 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:37,600 from inside a closed Herculaneum scroll. 605 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:43,440 This is the first time that anyone has seen this text in 2,000 years. 606 00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:48,920 What I'm now seeing is actually the thing that I've been looking for. 607 00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:51,640 It's incredibly exciting. 608 00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:54,400 'But what does it say? 609 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:58,600 'Brent's friend, Papyrologist James Brusuelas, 610 00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:02,880 'is helping him to identify this lost text.' 611 00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:06,360 The last time a human looked at this was an ancient Roman. 612 00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:08,720 But you're saying there's a word there. 613 00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:12,800 The word "porphyra" or "porphyras" starts to become very clear. 614 00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:14,800 and that's a word for purple. 615 00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:18,000 So you're saying that the first thing 616 00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:21,840 that we pull out of Herculaneum, that we can read, it says purple. 617 00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,320 Yeah. It's a very specific word in the ancient world. 618 00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,080 When you make purple clothes and you wear purple clothes, 619 00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:29,080 it means you're very wealthy. 620 00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:30,840 It's like driving around in your Ferrari. 621 00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:32,960 This is why the Roman emperors often wore purple. 622 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,360 So in this instance, if it's not matching anything 623 00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:38,360 that we've already seen from what's been published from Herculaneum, 624 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:39,840 it could be something unknown. 625 00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:42,160 This is from a scroll that's completely closed. 626 00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:45,640 If we can get a little bit farther, we can give you images 627 00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:47,960 that look like something that's already opened. 628 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:49,520 We're gonna be knocking at your door. 629 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:51,680 "Can you give me more segments? I want more lines. 630 00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:53,560 "More lines, more lines, more lines." 631 00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:55,160 It's a watershed moment, really. 632 00:42:56,680 --> 00:43:00,920 'I'm blown away by what Brent and his team have done, 633 00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:05,840 'using artificial intelligence to unveil ancient intelligence. 634 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:09,000 'It's the achievement of a lifetime.' 635 00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:10,160 This is incredible 636 00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:12,200 because you're talking about reading words 637 00:43:12,240 --> 00:43:14,360 which nobody has seen since Vesuvius erupted. 638 00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:15,680 That's correct, yeah. 639 00:43:15,720 --> 00:43:17,800 You've been working on this for 20 years. 640 00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:21,080 Does it feel like a landscape is opening up in front of you? 641 00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:24,720 We've pioneered the technology and we've proven that it can work, 642 00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:27,160 and we've taken a lot of steps to be able to do that. 643 00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:28,440 It's been a long journey. 644 00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:31,480 Brent Seales is giving us all hope. 645 00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:33,720 He's not a classicist by training. 646 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:38,720 He somehow got caught up with it, and he's our saviour from without. 647 00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:42,640 I mean, he's doing things that we never thought possible. 648 00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:46,000 The plan is to inspire more excavation, 649 00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:49,680 because I believe that there may be more of this material 650 00:43:49,720 --> 00:43:51,680 actually still in the ground. 651 00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:54,920 Can you estimate how many more there are to analyse? 652 00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,040 We can estimate how many there are... Yeah. 653 00:43:57,080 --> 00:43:59,640 ..but I can tell you exactly how many we intend to scan. 654 00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:01,760 How many? All of them. 655 00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:04,800 And what are we talking about, tens, hundreds? 656 00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:07,320 Hundreds. Hundreds of ancient books? 657 00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:09,520 But they're all part of the collection. Yeah. 658 00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:11,600 So why leave anyone behind? Yeah. 659 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:16,320 It is astonishing that Brent's research 660 00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:18,000 has brought us to this point 661 00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:24,200 where we can actually read words deep inside these papyri. 662 00:44:24,240 --> 00:44:26,720 Everyone thought those words were lost, 663 00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:29,680 were closed, would never be unlocked. 664 00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:33,200 And just imagine what insights remain 665 00:44:33,240 --> 00:44:36,400 within this library of papyri. 666 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:40,280 One thing is absolutely for certain, 667 00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:43,840 and that is that this is just the beginning. 56562

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