Get Started
You can make history, win prizes, and help read the lost library of the Herculaneum scrolls. Here's how:
1. Join the community
Join our Discord server, subscribe to our mailing list, follow @scrollprize on X, and complete our community survey.
2. See a scroll
Get a feel for the data by looking inside a scroll that has not been opened in 2,000 years:
3. Dive in
Our goal is to read the entire library.
We need help in automating the virtually unwrapping of entire scrolls:
- Prizes: $200,000 Unwrapping at Scale Prize
- Starting point: Data, Tutorials
Contestants can also contribute to our two primary subproblems:
- Prizes: Progress Prizes
- Starting point: Virtual Unwrapping, Segmentation tutorial, Segmentation - a different approach
- Prizes: 7 x $60,000 First Letters and First Title Prizes
- Starting point: Ink detection tutorial
4. Utilize resources
Find more information about our datasets (data page) and what to do with them (tutorials).
There are many great tools and resources that you can use and contribute to:
- Prizes: Progress Prizes
- Starting point: Awesome Scroll Tools and Progress Prizes Wish List
For prototyping new ideas, we recommend the vesuvius
Python and C libraries for working with scroll data.
Reach out to our Discord community and team with your questions!