A prize of $60,000 has been awarded by the Vesuvius Challenge to Marcel Roth and Micha Nowak who successfully read the end-title of Herculaneum Papyrus 172. Ancient scrolls normally had titles at both beginning and end. This end-title, in the very middle of the papyrus, reads ‘Philodemus On Vices Book 1’ (though just possibly Book…

Last week an astonishing 20 Herculaneum scrolls were scanned at the Diamond Light Source facility near Oxford. Years of work and intensive collaboration have led to this moment. We can now look forward to rapid progress in the project to scan all the still rolled-up papyri. For the whole story follow this link. [28/04/2025]