The Herculaneum Scrolls – 1,800 books that could contain unknown classics
Posted On: Jul 8th, 2018 at 15:30
Italy
A background story of Pompeii and Herculaneum and their destruction by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD is not required here as everyone should know this story, and if you don’t – look it up! And shame on you too!
Pompeii itself is without doubt the best preserved ancient city in the world and its preservation is, of course, caused by the town being buried in hot ash from the pyroclastic flow that followed the eruption. Naturally the same fate was to befall its sister town, Herculaneum. It was Herculaneum, however, that would turn out to contain the best treasures – 1,800 scrolls, charred by the heat and fires and considered lost to history. But that could be about to change. An X-ray machine called a synchrotron might be able to reveal what’s written in the scrolls, and it could expose unknown writings from “Aristotle, Virgil, and Euripides.” If they did, they would be some of the best treasures ever discovered in the history of archaeology.
In my experience though, most scrolls turn out to be trading agreements, property deeds and even the odd shopping list or recipe!
Fingers crossed…
