Herculaneum Scrolls Speak After Two Thousand Years
A charred lump the size of a fist is all that remains of a scroll from the library of the Roman city of Herculaneum. Buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius two thousand years ago, the text hidden inside has gone unread ever since. Physically unrolling such a scroll would turn it to ash. But now archaeologists no longer have to take that risk.