Elon Musk, the American entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, donated three million dollars to support projects aimed at deciphering the ancient Herculaneum papyri, which have remained a mystery for centuries. The investment reflects Musk's interest in the history of Roman civilization and his commitment to recovering lost knowledge through technology, as reported by Focus Online.
The Herculaneum papyri, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, constitute one of the few preserved sources of Roman thought. Their content holds the potential to reveal details about the philosophy, literature, and daily life of antiquity. Scholars believe that these documents could contain unpublished philosophical reflections and even works of Aristotle.
Since their discovery in the 18th century by archaeologists under the orders of the Bourbons, the papyri presented challenges to researchers. The intense heat of the eruption carbonized them, making them fragile and causing them to resemble charred pieces of wood rather than scrolls. This fragility made traditional methods of unrolling and reading them nearly impossible without causing destruction.
To overcome these challenges, methods involving technology were developed. Techniques such as X-rays, computed tomography, infrared light, and artificial intelligence are being employed to scan and digitally reconstruct the content of the papyri without damaging them. At the University of Oxford, the papyri will undergo scanning with a particle accelerator—a technique that can reveal new texts without affecting the manuscripts' structure. This method works by accelerating subatomic particles to nearly the speed of light and directing them towards the papyrus, allowing for high-resolution images of the interior to be created, thus visualizing hidden texts.
Elon Musk's company xAI develops AI models, which are key tools for studies like the deciphering of the Herculaneum papyri, as reported by La Nación. Musk's investment will enhance scanning methods with particle accelerators, thereby improving research efforts, according to La Nación. "The Musk Foundation will support this," Elon Musk stated on X.
The Vesuvius Challenge is a competition aimed at stimulating the scientific analysis and deciphering of the papyrus scrolls buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Collaboration between archaeologists, scientists, and technology experts is essential for its success. Last year, three students won 700,000 euros in the Vesuvius Challenge for their work, illustrating the project's potential to redefine our understanding of ancient history, according to Focus Online.
In October 2023, a 21-year-old student from Nebraska named Luke Farritor, an intern at SpaceX, won $400,000 after deciphering the word "purple" from one of the papyri. The word is notable because in ancient Rome, the color purple was associated with power, and plebeians were prohibited from wearing it.
Some researchers believe that within the Herculaneum papyri, there could be key information about the Platonic Academy, which was maintained for nearly a thousand years until Emperor Justinian closed it in 529 CE. Other scholars assert that the texts could contain works by Philodemus of Gadara, a philosopher known for addressing questions of ethics, physics, and the nature of happiness.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq