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Is there any way to dope the structure to make the ink more visible? Something akin to immunocytochemistry marking via looking for chemical markers? Given the amount of innovation in immunocytochemistry binding methods, why couldn't they do something here for the ink?
I do worry the problem is insufficient data. What other scanning techniques are there? Does PET and MRI or work on these things? Is there any way to dope the structure to make the ink more visible? Something akin to immunocytochemistry marking via looking for chemical markers? Given the amount of innovation in immunocytochemistry binding methods, why couldn't they do something here for the ink?
The same applies here. Experimenting with chemistry at all runs the risk of destroying the information forever. During these tests, the artifact must be preserved. If you destroy the artifact but are able to read it, did you really come out ahead?
Can't wait for those scrolls to be readable. There's potentially so many scrolls still buried. With a bit of luck we will get complete versions of lost works from the ancient world.
Can't wait for those scrolls to be readable. There's potentially so many scrolls still buried. With a bit of luck we will get complete versions of lost works from the ancient world.
Sometimes the works we do have from the ancient world seem…. Better? Like meditations is still the only ‘self-help’ book I’ve ever read that has actually made me a better person. I find the stoic philosophy so powerful, and every incarnation of philosophers afterwards are generally… pessimistic or cold and calculating?
I do worry the problem is insufficient data. What other scanning techniques are there? Does PET and MRI or work on these things? Is there any way to dope the structure to make the ink more visible? Something akin to immunocytochemistry marking via looking for chemical markers? Given the amount of innovation in immunocytochemistry binding methods, why couldn't they do something here for the ink?
The science of archeology is a destructive one. Temples and tombs escavated in the late 1800’s could have largely benefitted from the rigour and advances made in modern archeology. How much information and narrative are lost to time due to their archeological mistakes? The same applies here. Experimenting with chemistry at all runs the risk of destroying the information forever. During these tests, the artifact must…
Quite a significant amount of money for something like this. Curious why it is deemed so valuable, unless it's more about the side benefits of improving the state of the art.
Edit:
> Vesuvius Challenge Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization that was formed solely to solve the puzzle of the Herculaneum Papyri. It is currently funded by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, and by many hours of volunteer contributions.
> Nat read 24 Hours in Ancient Rome during the 2020 COVID lockdown. He fell into an internet rabbit hole that ended up with him reaching out to Dr. Seales two years later to see how he could help speed up the reading of the Herculaneum Papyri. They came up with the idea of the Vesuvius Challenge. Daniel was intrigued by this idea and decided to co-sponsor it with Nat.
Edit 2:
Original recruitment ad is neat https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35176585
Anyone got any preliminary results to show? I was playing around with it and was doing pretty well with the unrolling step - I could get hundreds of sheets out mostly hole free.
This is one of the problems with big prizes for community efforts--strong motivator but you're crazy if you think anyone is sharing results with 100s of k on the line.
Got lots of paper-like things, and have learnt a lot about the papyrus plant and the long cells it has... But didn't manage to get out anything that looked like 'ink'.
Who is behind this and funding the prize? Quite a significant amount of money for something like this. Curious why it is deemed so valuable, unless it's more about the side benefits of improving the state of the art. Edit: > Vesuvius Challenge Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization that was formed solely to solve the puzzle of the Herculaneum Papyri. It is currently funded by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, and by ma…