@scrollprize

The Vesuvius Challenge is a machine learning, geometry and computer vision competition to read the Herculaneum Papyri.

scrollprize.org
Joined February 2023
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Vesuvius Challenge retweeted
Kevin Albrecht
@kevinpalbrecht
Aug 24
Vesuvius buried Herculaneum in AD 79 and carbonized a library of scrolls. We can read one of them now: PHerc. 1667, a Stoic treatise on ethics, read from inside the still-sealed roll. It's on Kevilex in the Ancient Greek, every word clickable: kevilex.com/collections/pher…
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Want $50K for discovering the first letters in an ancient papyrus scroll? We've published a new article that walks you through one possible way to win our First Letters Prize scrollprize.substack.com/p/f…
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Have we found a squashed bug in the scrolls?
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This month we awarded $33,500 in progress prizes to 13 different winners! The top submission got $20,000, and we will keep awarding $20,000 to the best contribution of the month till June 2027! Join us, help us read the scrolls, write history and win prizes!
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I still can’t believe we’re reading Greek text from this piece of coal! Every month, we’ll award $20,000 to contributors who help us recover more text from other pieces of coal like this one. Join our Discord: discord.gg/V4fJhvtaQn
PHerc. Paris 4

ALT PHerc. Paris 4

Text extracted from PHerc. Paris 4

ALT Text extracted from PHerc. Paris 4

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A new phase BEGINS! 🚀 🏆 $1M Grand Prize 💰 $2M+ in open prizes 👑 $20K awarded every month to the best submission scrollprize.org/ Will you read the next scroll? 👀 Spread the word and repost! 🔁

Vesuvius Challenge — Reading the Herculaneum Scrolls with AI

Vesuvius Challenge uses machine learning and computer vision to read the carbonized Herculaneum scrolls buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD. Over $1,868,000 awarded.

scrollprize.org
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This sounds crazy, BUT this week we READ A FULL SCROLL!! scrollprize.org/firstscroll It’s PHerc. 1667, aka Scroll 4! And that’s not all. We also proved that we can directly see ink in a rescan of PHerc. Paris 4 — Scroll 1 — WITHOUT machine learning… …and we UNROLLED ABOUT 140 COLUMNS FROM IT. This was honestly POETIC. We first saw a glimpse of the results over dinner in Naples, in a restaurant where Caravaggio was stabbed. Federica was so excited — more excited than we had ever seen her — that we abandoned dinner, went back to work, and unrolled the 140 columns until 3 a.m. on a hotel rooftop, with Vesuvius in the background. The unroll is not perfect. But guys… 140 columns, with text visible everywhere. It’s HUGE. This project has been full of ups and downs, but somehow, at some point, something ALWAYS happens. We’re starting to think these scrolls have personalities… …and they want to be read. @natfriedman has announced a $1M Grand Prize to read another full scroll. Official details coming soon!
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The Vesuvius Challenge is still a CHALLENGE! 🧠📜 We’re teaming up with @kaggle to launch a $100K Surface Detection competition on 3D CT scans of the Herculaneum scrolls: kaggle.com/competitions/vesu… . Train topology-aware models, climb the leaderboard, and help us read an ancient library! #VesuviusChallenge #kaggle #computervision #machinelearning

Vesuvius Challenge - Surface Detection

Build a model to virtually unwrap ancient scrolls.

kaggle.com
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Awarding the fantastic contributions from our community in April! Congratulations to the winners of this month's progress prizes! Sestertius - Lachlan Parker, Will Stevens Papyrus - Stephane Gouttebrouze , Yao Hsao Newsletter - open.substack.com/pub/scroll… Open Prizes - scrollprize.org/prizes Discord - discord.com/invite/uTfNwwecC… We've awarded $1.5 million in prizes to date and have $500,000+ in prizes waiting to be claimed! Check out the site and join the discord to get started.
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We're excited to announce that we are awarding our inaugural $60,000 First Title Prize!!! PHerc. 172 is officially On Vices Congratulations to Marcel Roth and Micha Nowak for the historic achievement of recovering the first title ever found in a still-rolled Herculaneum scroll!! We've written up an extended announcement that goes into some additional details about the title and what we may learn from it here: scrollprize.substack.com/p/6… We've got a ton more prizes available, join our quest to read the Herculaneum scrolls and you too could win a prize like this one! scrollprize.org/get_started
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Social links for : Marcel : linkedin.com/in/mvrcelroth/ Micha : linkedin.com/in/mvnowak Congrats again to you both!
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We’re looking for exceptional people to join our mission to read the Herculaneum Scrolls. Refer a successful hire — earn a $5,000 prize. We're hiring for the following roles: Geometry & Computer Vision Applied Researchers Platform Engineers Synchrotron Tomography Reconstruction Expert If you know someone brilliant who can help recover the ancient scrolls of Herculaneum, your referral could change history! View Open Roles - scrollprize.org/jobs Check the instructions - (scrollprize.org/prizes#refer… Send referals to : [email protected]

Vesuvius Challenge

Work on Vesuvius Challenge and help read the Herculaneum scrolls. No open roles right now, but we're always glad to meet exceptional people who can help.

scrollprize.org
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This month, we more than quadrupled the "virtual library" of Herculaneum scrolls, going from 5 to 23 total scans. This required an immense effort from our team and partners (some might even say Herculean!). If you've ever wondered what the process looks like, take a look at our latest substack post! open.substack.com/pub/scroll…
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We've awarded our first set of progress prizes for the new year! Congrats to the winners! Included as well are some updates from the past month, including a sneak peek at some information regarding our upcoming scans! scrollprize.substack.com/p/f…
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Over $320,000 in new prizes, and tens of meters of fresh ancient scroll. There's never been a better time to start the challenge! Details here: scrollprize.org/prizes Join the Discord! We'd love to help you get started. discord.gg/uTfNwwecCQ
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