Technique May Help Decipher Scrolls Charred by Vesuvius

The contents of hundreds of papyrus scrolls that were turned into charcoal in the eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. — one of the great natural disasters of antiquity — have long remained a mystery. That soon may change. Scientists said Tuesday that a sophisticated form of X-ray technology has enabled them to decipher some of the writing in the charred scrolls from a library once housed in a sumptuous villa in ancient Herculaneum, a city that overlooked the Bay of...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - mardi 20 janvier 2015