Preview | The Herculaneum Scrolls

Season 21 Episode 6

About the Episode

Making headlines around the world, Brent Seales and his team of computer scientists set out on a mission to read the 2,000-year-old carbonized scrolls found in the remains of a villa in Herculaneum. Mt. Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 AD transformed the papyri, fusing together the layers of the scrolls and making them impossible to read. Can particle physics and AI finally reveal what the scrolls say?

Aired: | Expires: | Runtime: 31s

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Extras

Ascending the Summit of Mt. Phu Kao

An archaeological team recreates the ascent that Khmer kings would have made up the holy mountain.

2:08
Signs of Human Habitation in Kurukshetra

Archaeologists dig through layers of earth in search of evidence of pre-Angkorian habitation.

2:11
Cymbal Found at Ancient Khmer Temple Site

Archaeologists find a small cymbal dating back to the 7th century.

1:30
A Gruesome Discovery in Rural Poland

In 2022, a team of archaeologists unearthed a strange burial in the Polish village of Pień.

2:50
Reconstructing the Face of a 17-Century Woman

A forensic artist reconstructs the face of a woman buried as a vampire in 17-century Poland.

1:44
Radar Technologies Aid in Search for Civil War Burial Site

A team searches for the remains of the soldiers slain in the Simpsonville Massacre.

2:48
Remembering the Fallen Soldiers of the Simpsonville Massacre

The search for the remains of 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry in Kentucky begins.

2:17
How Technology Revived Seneca the Elder

Researcher Valeria Piano discovers long-lost history of Rome written by Seneca the Elder.

2:53
Decoding the Herculaneum Scrolls: AI Meets Ancient Texts

Artificial intelligence is used to find out what some carbonized Herculaneum scrolls say.

3:34
Another Composer in the Mozart Family?

Letters between siblings Wolfgang and Maria Anna Mozart suggest she, too, composed music.

2:25