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  "path": "/science/archaeology-breakthrough-ancient-veusvius-scroll-read",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-26T03:29:06.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "supported by Elon Musk",
    "Controversial Bible mystery finally solved after two new sermons discovered in lost manuscripts",
    "Divers stunned as untouched piece of history rises from Mediterranean seabed after 1,000 years",
    "'World's first single-sex space' revealed in ancient cave as 300,000-year-old fossils discovered",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nScientists have decoded a series of messages from ancient Rome for the very first time.\n\nA series of ancient scrolls were burnt to a crisp as Pompeii burned lay unopened for millennia.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThey come from the Roman town of Herculaneum, around 10 miles from Pompeii, which was covered in volcanic ash as Mount Vesuvius erupted.\n\nBrittle and charred, the scrolls have survived, but would disintegrate if anyone tried to open them.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\nBut now, using powerful X-ray facilities in Oxfordshire and Grenoble in the French Alps, a complete scroll has been unrolled.\n\nThe discoveries, announced on Thursday in Naples, include a newly identified book by Philodemus, the Epicurean philosopher, and possibly previously unknown work from influential Stoic philosopher Chrysippus.\n\nPapyrologists - who study ancient documents and manuscripts - were stunned as more than 140 columns of new text were revealed.\n\nBrent Seales, of the University of Kentucky, said: \"It's only a matter of time until we read all of the scrolls.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\"For nearly two millennia, many of these texts have been physically preserved but intellectually inaccessible... we are finally able to read them,\" he added.\n\nThe Vesuvius Challenge - supported by Elon Musk - has now set a bounty for a new prize - $1million for a fully-read scroll by this time last year.\n\nThe scrolls were first discovered in the 18th century in the Villa of the Papyri, which is believed to have belonged to the family of Julius Caesar's father-in-law.\n\nAs Vesuvius erupted, the volcanic debris carbonised the scrolls - preserving them from other decay which had destroyed other libraries.\n\n### LATEST ARCHAEOLOGY HEADLINES:\n\n\n\n\n  * Controversial Bible mystery finally solved after two new sermons discovered in lost manuscripts\n  * Divers stunned as untouched piece of history rises from Mediterranean seabed after 1,000 years\n  * 'World's first single-sex space' revealed in ancient cave as 300,000-year-old fossils discovered\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nOne parchment, named as PHerc 1667, was considered unreadable after being physically opened in the 1980s.\n\nBut using high-resolution micro-CT imaging at facilities including Diamond Light Source near Didcot, Oxfordshire and the European Synchroton Radiation Facility in Grenoble.\n\nThe scans produced three-dimensional X-ray maps of the papyrus layers inside the blackened rolls, which has resulted in the previously illegible scroll yielding nearly one and a half metres of continuous writing surface.\n\nFederica Nicolardi, an assistant professor in papyrology at the University of Naples Federico II, said: \"With the virtual unwrapping, we can follow sustained arguments across multiple columns. That's a transformational shift.\"\n\nResearchers are now working to decipher the text, which is believed to be a philosophical treatise on ethics rooted in Stoic thought.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe author is believed to be Chrysippus - the third head of the Stoic school and one of antiquity's most influential philosophers - but little of his own writing has survived.\n\n\"If this text had been found in Egypt or anywhere else, it would probably have been classified straight away as a Stoic text,\" Mr Nicolardi said.\n\n\"The fact that it comes from a collection that is almost entirely Epicurean makes us more cautious in drawing conclusions.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is not just a technical recovery, it's the return of a philosophical voice.\"\n\nMore than 600 known Herculaneum scrolls are still unopened and unexplored sections of the villa may contain more.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Message from ancient Rome emerges from ash after nearly 2,000 years"
}