Il seminario, originariamente collocato nel pomeriggio di "Scienza e Arte" (Camerino giovedì 19 maggio 2016 ore 15.00
Pinacoteca e Museo Civici - Sala delle Capriate piazza dei Costanti) è stato spostato il 20 Maggio 2016, ore 12 in aula A,

polo di Matematica.

The quest of lost ancient literature.  

Synchrotron based techniques reveal the secrets of Herculaneum papyri: letters and ink composition.

Vito Mocella

CNR   -  IMM-Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi - Unità di Napoli

We present the first experimental demonstration of a non-destructive technique that reveals the text of a carbonized and thus extremely fragile Herculaneum papyrus. Buried by the famous eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, the Herculaneum papyri represent a unique treasure for humanity. Overcoming the difficulties of the other techniques we prove that x-ray phase contrast tomography technique can detect the text within scrolls, thanks to the coherence and high-energy properties of a synchrotron source [1]. This new imaging technique represents a turning point for the study of literature and ancient philosophy, disclosing texts that were believed to be completely lost. In order to improve the imaging technique we performed also an extensive experimental analysis of the ink composition, using a combination of synchrotron techniques at the ESRF, discovering the presence of metal in the ink of two Herculaneum papyrus fragments and proving that metals were used in ink several centuries earlier than previously believed [2],[3].

[1] V. Mocella et al., “Revealing letters in rolled Herculaneum papyri by X-ray phase-contrast imaging”,  Nature Communications 6, 5895 (2015).

 [2] P. Tack et al., “Tracking ink composition on Herculaneum papyrus scrolls: quantification and speciation of lead by X-ray based techniques and Monte Carlo simulations”, Scientific Reports 6, 20763 (2016).

[3] E. Brun et al., “Revealing metallic ink in Herculaneum papyri”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 113 (14) 3751-3754 (2016).