To read 2,000-year-old burned scrolls, scientists burn their own
Douglas Seiler painstakingly sourced papyrus and reed pens from Egypt and traditional lampblack ink from Japan, then paid some high school students to inscribe the papyrus with lines from Star Wars and the Bible and a quote from the '60s sci-fi TV show The Outer Limits.
Scientists replicated the effects of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, which destroyed a library in Herculaneum and preserved its scrolls as carbonized remains. By using papyrus, reed pens, and ink, researchers created modern copies of the ancient scrolls. They discovered that ink containing lead stands out when scanned by an X-ray beam, making the letters readable.
To test this method, they used an inexpensive handheld X-ray fluorescence scanner to detect lead in the ink of charred scrolls. The researchers believe this technique could greatly improve the deciphering of these ancient texts, which are invaluable sources of Greek literature and philosophy.
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