A computational platform for the virtual unfolding of Herculaneum Papyri

Ancient Herculaneum papyrus scrolls, hopelessly charred in the 79 A.D. Vesuvius eruption, contain valuable writings of the Greek philosophers of the day, including works of the Epicurean Philodemus. X-ray phase contrast tomography has recently begun unlocking their secrets. However, only small porti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2021-01, Vol.11 (1), p.1695-1695, Article 1695
Main Authors: Stabile, Sara, Palermo, Francesca, Bukreeva, Inna, Mele, Daniela, Formoso, Vincenzo, Bartolino, Roberto, Cedola, Alessia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/1034/1037
639/301/930/2735
639/705/1042
639/705/117
639/705/794
639/766/25
Carbon
Computer applications
Digitization
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Nanotechnology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Segmentation
Tomography
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Summary:Ancient Herculaneum papyrus scrolls, hopelessly charred in the 79 A.D. Vesuvius eruption, contain valuable writings of the Greek philosophers of the day, including works of the Epicurean Philodemus. X-ray phase contrast tomography has recently begun unlocking their secrets. However, only small portions of the text hidden inside the scroll have been recover. One of the challenging tasks in Herculaneum papyri investigation is their virtual unfolding because of their highly complicated structure and three-dimensional arrangement. Although this procedure is feasible, problems in segmentation and flattening hinder the unrolling of a large portion of papyrus. We propose a computational platform for the virtual unfolding procedure, and we show the results of its application on two Herculaneum papyrus fragments. This work paves the way to a comprehensive survey and to further interpretation of larger portions of text hidden inside the carbonized Herculaneum papyri.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-80458-z