“Two thousand years ago, a volcanic eruption buried an ancient library of papyrus scrolls now known as the Herculaneum Papyri. In the 18th century the scrolls were discovered. More than 800 of them are now stored in a library in Naples, Italy; these lumps of carbonized ash cannot be opened without severely damaging them…

A global community of competitors and collaborators assembled to crack the problem with computer vision, machine learning, and hard work.  Less than a year later, in December 2023, they succeeded. Finally, after 275 years, we can begin to read the scrolls.”

From Vesuvius Challenge.