November 6, 2023

In the middle of the second row is the Greek word πορϕυρας (purple) on the charred papyrus scroll. Luke Farritor, a senior in the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Engineering, recently won a global contest to read the first text inside a carbonized scroll from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum. That text had been unreadable since the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Farritor developed a machine-learning algorithm that detected the Greek word πορϕυρας (purple) on the charred papyrus scroll, which is too delicate to unroll using MRI scans. November 3, 2023. Photo by Craig Chandler / University Communication and Marketing.