Unlocking Scrolls Preserved in Eruption of Vesuvius, Using X-Ray Beams
21st January 2015
Researchers have found a key that may unlock the only library of classical antiquity to survive along with its documents, raising at least a possibility of recovering vanished works of ancient Greek and Roman authors such as the lost books of Livy’s history of Rome.
The library is that of a villa in Herculaneum, a town that was destroyed in A.D. 79 by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that obliterated nearby Pompeii. Though Pompeii was engulfed by lava, a mix of superhot gases and ash swept over Herculaneum, preserving the documents in a grand villa that probably belonged to the family of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar.
January 21st, 2015 at 14:04
…..after years of painstaking research it was found that most of the documents were bills from the local sandal shop frequented by his wife, Rutilia.