2026-09-16 カリフォルニア大学バークレー校（UCB）
A contemporary papyrus scroll before and after burning in a nearly oxygen-free chamber, which carbonized but did not destroy the material. Douglas Seiler
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/09/16/to-read-2000-year-old-burned-scrolls-scientists-burn-their-own/
- https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0353485
炭化したパピルス巻物の模型は、ヘルクラネウム図書館の判読可能な巻物を特定するための新たな道を開く A model carbonized papyrus scroll opens a novel path to identifying readable scrolls of the Herculaneum Library
Douglas Seiler,Jacob Michael LaManna,Michael McOsker,David Kreimer,Michael Cyrus Daugherty,Jens Dopke
PLOS One Published: September 16, 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0353485
Abstract
We report the successful fabrication of a laboratory-made carbonized papyrus scroll and the virtual unrolling and reading of its custom leaded ink text, using X-ray tomography. We believe this is the first confirmed proof of concept to show that the presence of lead in Herculaneum scrolls would greatly increase the probability for successful reading. This synthetic model enables systematic variation of ink formulations, including leaded inks, to generate ground-truth datasets for the development and validation of text-detection algorithms intended for use on the Herculaneum scrolls. By altering the ink composition from pure carbon to an ink enriched with lead, an X-ray contrasting agent, our team can provide datasets which can be used to test algorithmic performance. Inks containing only carbon present a more challenging detection scenario, serving as a baseline for recovery efforts. The lab-made scroll was constructed from modern Egyptian papyrus and ink incorporating a soluble lead salt, then carbonized and imaged using a laboratory-grade X-ray tomography system. The scroll was virtually unrolled using custom-developed software. Additionally, we found that a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device could detect lead in the ink post-carbonization. This suggests that XRF may be a practical screening method for identifying ancient scrolls likely to contain lead-based ink and therefore have a higher probability of being successfully read.
