3 ms·
Scrolls from Herculaneum have been read for a very long time. Not disputing the achievement of digitally unrolling one, but the scrolls from the library of have
by suddenlybananas 4mo ago
Scrolls from Herculaneum have been read for a very long time. Not disputing the achievement of digitally unrolling one, but the scrolls from the library of have been studied since the 18th century.
- tokai 4mo agoSure, but its the potential scale that is important. There are also more scrolls still in the ground, which would make sense to dig out if they could be read.
- suddenlybananas 4mo agoOf course! But the title is misleading and gives people the impression that we don't already know the library is just full of Epicurean texts.
- IAmBroom 4mo agoIt's also technically incorrect. The texts have been read; this particular text was read for the first time in the modern era.
- verditelabs 4mo agoI think it's a case of HN once again butchering the title. I submitted it as the exact title from our page on scrollprize.org, "An _Entire_ Herculaneum Scroll Has Been Read For The First Time", which is IIRC true.
- dang 4mo agoOk, I've restored the entire title above. Sorry about that! (Btw, you can use the 'edit' link to fix things like this if the software gets a title change wrong.)
- varenc 4mo agoFrom my cursory reading of the pre-print, it didn't seem like the entire scroll has been read? Or rather, you read everything that can be read, but part of the original have been lost? (Like columns 1-4). VERY COOL WORK!
- legitster 4mo ago*Some scrolls. They are in a variety of conditions - some of them people were able to "break" open and read. But the vast majority of what remains is too delicate and brittle to risk.