Unrolling the Future of Ancient Texts For centuries, scholars have attempted to unroll and decipher the charred scrolls of Herculaneum's ancient library, but with limited success.
Now, a team of researchers has proposed an innovative approach that may finally crack the code: using X ray CT scans to detect lead in the ink. The method is deceptively simple yet ingeniously effective.
According to Leah Packard Grams, a papyrologist at UC Berkeley, "If we know that the Herculaneum papyri have lead in them – some of them do, some of them don’t – then when they take the CT scan, they can scan it with a sensitivity for the element lead and see where the ink is.