A breakthrough out of the Vesuvius Challenge builds on past efforts to virtually “unroll” fragile papyrus documents carbonized into hardened lumps by the volcanic blast.

Scholars are studying an ancient scroll that has been virtually unrolled 2,000 years after it was burned to a crisp during the eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius.

After two students correctly identified the ancient Greek word for "purple" in a papyrus scroll charred by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, they teamed up with a third student to identify about 5% of the philosophical text,

Scientists hope a mix of artificial intelligence and human expertise will help decipher ancient scrolls carbonised by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s in the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum,