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Resurrecting an ancient library from the ashes of a volcano.

Buried in 79 AD, now being revealed.

Vesuvius Challenge is an open science research organization reading the carbonized Herculaneum scrolls without unrolling them. Anyone can help: we run a $2M competition, with prizes every month.

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News​

More on Substack
$60,000 First Title Prize AwardedMay 5February Prizes and UpdatesMarch 12New Prizes and Progress UpdateFebruary 27First Letters Found in New ScrollFebruary 5

Open problems & prizes​

All prizes and rules
AfterBefore

Virtual Unwrapping

We can trace a scroll's surface, but where sheets are crushed or torn it still needs human help. Help us make it fully automatic.

Win the $1,000,000 Grand Prize

Learn about the current path

AfterBefore

Ink Detection

We can see ink in some scrolls, but models trained on one rarely transfer to the next. Help us make them work on every scroll.

Win the $500,000 First Letters Prizes

Learn how to find a letter

Our story​

All milestones

Vesuvius erupts, burying a villa and its library of papyrus scrolls under twenty meters of ash.

The scrolls are carbonized by the heat, but also preserved. For centuries, as almost every other ancient text decays, the library of the Villa of the Papyri waits underground, intact.

Mount Vesuvius

Team​

Led by

Paul HendersonTechnical Lead
Federica NicolardiPapyrology Lead

Created by

Nat FriedmanInstigator, Director & Founding Sponsor
Daniel GrossFounding Sponsor
Brent SealesPrincipal Advisor

Technical Team

Sean JohnsonResearch Scientist
Hendrik SchillingComputer Vision & AI Expert
Elian Rafael Dal PráResearch Assistant
Johannes RudolphPlatform Engineer

Papyrology Team

Federica NicolardiAssociate Professor, University of Naples Federico II
Marzia D'AngeloPostdoctoral Fellow, University of Naples Federico II
Kilian FleischerResearch Director and Papyrologist, University of Tübingen
Alessia LavorantePostdoctoral Fellow, University of Naples Federico II
Michael McOskerResearcher, University of Oxford
Maria Chiara RobustelliPostdoctoral Fellow, University of Naples Federico II
Claudio VergaraPostdoctoral Fellow, University of Naples Federico II
Rossella VillaResearch Assistant, University of Salerno

Annotation Team

David JoseyTeam Lead
Kendra BrownAnnotation Specialist
Laura TrojakAnnotation Specialist

Sponsors​

Make a donation
Nat Friedman$2,750,000Musk Foundation$2,084,000Alex Gerko$450,000Joseph Jacks$250,000Daniel Gross$225,000Matt Mullenweg$150,000John & Patrick Collison$125,000Emergent Ventures$100,000Eugene Jhong$100,000Julia DeWahl & Dan Romero$100,000Anonymous$100,000Bastian Lehmann$75,000Tobi Lutke$75,000Arthur Breitman$50,000Guillermo Rauch$50,000Matt Huang$50,000Anonymous$50,000Anonymous$50,000

Partners​

Biblioteca Nazionale di NapoliEduceLabInstitut de FranceGettyKaggle