Meggie Macdonald

It seems as though late spring is the time when any and all new technologies catch the eye of the public, and this particularly valuable to archaeology as the viable digging seasons – particularly for Rome, Greece and Egypt – are not until much later in the year (due to extreme temperatures).

In light of this, the University of Kentucky has announced that Gill Professor of Engineering, Brent Seales, will be attempting to read papyrus scrolls damaged during the famous eruption of Mt Vesuvius over the Bay of Naples in AD 79.  Destroying the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the fallout from the eruption proved a treasure to archaeologists from approximately the seventeenth century onward to the present day.  In the volcanic ash, Roman daily life was freeze-framed:  breakfast was on the table, the day’s business had begun, a political election had taken place only a few days earlier and the campaign grafitti was still on the walls of buildings, children were playing, dogs were chewing bones.

When the volcano erupted, though, certainly aspects of Roman daily life were destroyed – not least of which many of the people who lived in the towns died – and one of these aspects were papyrus scrolls, burnt to a crisp by the heat of the eruption. 

Using a technique similar to CT scans of the human body, Professor Seales will attempt to read the contents of these charred scrolls.  This could be particularly interesting since Herculaneum was home to the library of Piso, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar, and may contain some of the triumvir’s own compositions, as well as works by a contemporary Epicurean scholar.

In any situation where previously unknown or unreadable material from the Ancient World comes to light, people studying the history of Greece and Rome generally engage in a great deal of joyous speculation.  This writer will not only encourage that but participate fully and unabashedly.  Good luck to Professor Seales and his team.