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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

A model carbonized papyrus scroll opens a novel path to identifying readable scrolls of the Herculaneum Library

  • Douglas Seiler1
  • Jacob Michael LaManna2
  • Michael McOsker3
  • David Kreimer4
  • Michael Cyrus Daugherty5
  • Jens Dopke
5 affiliations
  1. 1UC Berkeley Affiliate, Berkeley, California, United States of America
  2. 2National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America
  3. 3Department of Greek and Latin, University College London, Researcher in Papyrology, London, United Kingdom
  4. 4UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry, Microanalytical Facility, Berkeley, California, United States of America
  5. 5STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK Research and Innovation, Harwell Oxford, England
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Abstract

We report the successful fabrication of a laboratory-made carbonized papyrus scroll and the virtual unrolling and reading of its custom leaded ink text, using X-ray tomography. We believe this is the first confirmed proof of concept to show that the presence of lead in Herculaneum scrolls would greatly increase the probability for successful reading. This synthetic model enables systematic variation of ink formulations, including leaded inks, to generate ground-truth datasets for the development and validation of text-detection algorithms intended for use on the Herculaneum scrolls. By altering the ink composition from pure carbon to an ink enriched with lead, an X-ray contrasting agent, our team can provide datasets which can be used to test algorithmic performance. Inks containing only carbon present a more challenging detection scenario, serving as a baseline for recovery efforts. The lab-made scroll was constructed from modern Egyptian papyrus and ink incorporating a soluble lead salt, then carbonized and imaged using a laboratory-grade X-ray tomography system. The scroll was virtually unrolled using custom-developed software. Additionally, we found that a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device could detect lead in the ink post-carbonization. This suggests that XRF may be a practical screening method for identifying ancient scrolls likely to contain lead-based ink and therefore have a higher probability of being successfully read.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{seiler2026model,
  title = {{A model carbonized papyrus scroll opens a novel path to identifying readable scrolls of the Herculaneum Library}},
  author = {Douglas Seiler and Jacob Michael LaManna and Michael McOsker and David Kreimer and Michael Cyrus Daugherty and Jens Dopke},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0353485},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0353485},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - A model carbonized papyrus scroll opens a novel path to identifying readable scrolls of the Herculaneum Library
AU  - Douglas Seiler
AU  - Jacob Michael LaManna
AU  - Michael McOsker
AU  - David Kreimer
AU  - Michael Cyrus Daugherty
AU  - Jens Dopke
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/16
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0353485
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0353485
AB  - We report the successful fabrication of a laboratory-made carbonized papyrus scroll and the virtual unrolling and reading of its custom leaded ink text, using X-ray tomography. We believe this is the first confirmed proof of concept to show that the presence of lead in Herculaneum scrolls would greatly increase the probability for successful reading. This synthetic model enables systematic variation of ink formulations, including leaded inks, to generate ground-truth datasets for the development and validation of text-detection algorithms intended for use on the Herculaneum scrolls. By altering the ink composition from pure carbon to an ink enriched with lead, an X-ray contrasting agent, our team can provide datasets which can be used to test algorithmic performance. Inks containing only carbon present a more challenging detection scenario, serving as a baseline for recovery efforts. The lab-made scroll was constructed from modern Egyptian papyrus and ink incorporating a soluble lead salt, then carbonized and imaged using a laboratory-grade X-ray tomography system. The scroll was virtually unrolled using custom-developed software. Additionally, we found that a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device could detect lead in the ink post-carbonization. This suggests that XRF may be a practical screening method for identifying ancient scrolls likely to contain lead-based ink and therefore have a higher probability of being successfully read.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -