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Published: July 5, 2024, 9 a.m.

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Endless Thread presents an episode from the podcast Outside/In.

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While digging a well in 1750, a group of workers accidentally discovered an ancient Roman villa containing over a thousand papyrus scrolls. This was a stunning discovery: the only library from antiquity ever found in situ. But the scrolls were blackened and fragile, turned almost to ash by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

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Over the centuries, scholars\\u2019 many attempts to unroll the fragile scrolls have mostly been catastrophic. But now, scientists are trying again, this time with the help of Silicon Valley and some of the most advanced technology we\\u2019ve got: particle accelerators, CT scanners, and AI.

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After two thousand years, will we finally be able to read the scrolls?

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*****

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Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis

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Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi

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Edited by Taylor Quimby

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Our team also includes Felix Poon

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NHPR\\u2019s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie

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Music in this episode came from Silver Maple, Xavy Rusan, bomull, Young Community, Bio Unit, Konrad OldMoney, Chris Zabriski, and Blue Dot Sessions.

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Volcano recordings came from\\xa0daveincamas on Freesound.org, License Attribution 4.0 and\\xa0\\xa0felix.blume on freesound.org, Creative Commons 0.

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Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.

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