The Digital Restoration Initiative at the University of Kentucky began with the goal of digitally unwrapping the Herculaneum papyri, a set of about 1000 ancient scrolls that were preserved in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. The papyri are too fragile to open physically, so researchers have developed new imaging techniques and software that have allowed them to digitally reconstruct the scrolls and their text. Researchers are also developing new applications for the technology to uncover and restore other heritage items. NEH grants helped get the project started and have laid the groundwork for what will be a state-of-the-art heritage technology lab that will serve the region as a whole.
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Researchers have been attempting to unwrap and access the knowledge in the Herculaneum papyri since their discovery in the 1700s. In 2015, Brent Seales, a computer scientist, made it possible to use noninvasive techniques to scan and virtually unwrap heavily damaged scrolls, like the ancient Israeli En Gedi scroll. He decided to apply the same approach to the Herculaneum papyri. Unlike the En Gedi scroll, however, the papyri were written in a carbon-based ink that is much more difficult to detect with traditional scanning methods. An initial NEH grant helped researchers develop the powerful machine learning tool necessary to teach computers how to detect and read the ink. Researchers then applied for and received a second grant to purchase their own imaging equipment. By this time, the project had drawn the attention of the broader scientific community at the University of Kentucky, which began to take notice of the team’s technological breakthroughs–for example, developing a software that could map the 3D X-ray structure of a scanned object. Together with a materials engineer and mechanical engineer, Seales applied for—and received—a much larger grant from the National Science Foundation to construct a state-of-the-art, specialized heritage lab that will help spur innovation.
The new heritage science lab will help researchers decipher the Herculaneum scrolls and solve problems that are closer to home. Recently, researchers were able to digitally recover hurricane-damaged materials from the oldest Greek Orthodox church in the United States, and new mobile imaging units will be able to identify unmarked African American gravesites. “We’re putting technology at the service of the humanities,” said Christy Chapman, the project’s manager. “Heritage science helps people answer questions they didn’t even know they had.”