"First Scans of the Herculaneum Papyri"

Today represents an exciting step forward for the EDUCE project: the team acquired a preliminary CT-scan of PHerc Paris 4, a complete unopened scroll from Herculaneum. Earlier in the week, they mounted the scroll in a special container to support it during scanning inside the SkyScan 1173. With protection from this meticulously constructed custom mounting container, the scroll can stand on end while the scanner rotates it in a gentle pirouette. The team is poised to begin acquiring scans at the best resolution and with the best possible contrast, revealing the internal layers and giving hope to the goal of eventually “virtually unrolling” the layers to read the text.

ETC at Center For Visualization & Virtual Environments, Univ. of Kentucky, College of Engineering
(Thanks to Chuck Jones for this.)