Writing seen in PHerc. 306B, for the first time in 2000 years

The Vesuvius Challenge awarded its $50,000 First Letters Prize to Liam Warner and Nicola Bodill for recovering readable text from PHerc. 306B, a carbonized scroll buried by Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 and excavated in the 1750s, marking the first writing seen in it in roughly 2,000 years. The breakthrough followed a micro-CT scan last year and review of 25 submissions from the challenge community, with ink identification and script orientation showing PHerc. 306B is the upper section of the original scroll and the smaller PHerc. 306A the lower part. The scroll is held at the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli, about 10 kilometers from its excavation site at the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum. The result matters because it confirms that ink can be detected in a scroll previously thought unreadable and establishes the physical relationship between the two fragments. Next to watch: the newly prioritized scan and virtual unrolling of PHerc. 306A, which organizers say has become more valuable now that ink has been identified in its counterpart.