According to Roman researchers, the translation of an old bookmark has revealed where the Greek scientist Plato is buried.
According to a translated statement from Italy’s National Research Council, Graziano Ranocchia, a philosopher at the University of Pisa, and colleagues used artificial intelligence (AI) to decipher text from papyrus recovered in Herculaneum, an ancient Roman town close to Pompeii.
Like Pompeii, Herculaneum was destroyed in A.D. 79 when Mount Vesuvius erupted, cloaking the area in ashes and pyroclastic flows.
The works of Philodemus of Gadara, an Epicurean scientist who lived in Athens and eventually lived in Italy, are among the artifacts that have been carbonized by the explosion. This work, known as the “Story of the Academy,” details the faculty that Plato founded in the third century B.C. and gives information about Plato’s life, including his burial area.
Historians now knew that Plato, the popular student of Socrates who wrote down his teacher’s ideas as well as his own, was buried at the Academy, which the Roman public Sulla destroyed in 86 B.C. But academics weren’t certain precisely where on the school’s grounds that Plato, who died in Athens in 348 or 347 B.C., had been laid to rest.
However, researchers were able to read the ancient papyrus, which is now part of the collection at the National Library of Naples, using a variety of cutting-edge techniques, including infrared and ultraviolet optical imaging, thermal imaging, and tomography.
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors
You consent to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are at least 16 years old when you submit your information.
So far, researchers have identified 1,000 words, or roughly 30% of the text written by Philodemus.
According to researchers, “We read that Plato was buried in the garden reserved for him (a private area intended for the Platonic school) of the Academy in Athens, close to the so-called Museion or sacellum sacred to the Muses,” according to the statement. It was only known up until now that he had been buried in the Academy.
The text also detailed how Plato was “sold into slavery” sometime between 404 and 399 B.C. (It was previously thought that this occurred in 387 B.C.)
According to the statement, Plato displays disdain for the musical and rhythmic prowess of a barbarian musician from Thrace in a dialogue between characters.
Researchers have used AI to read ancient scrolls that survived Mount Vesuvius’ eruption for the first time. Researchers earlier this year cracked the code to a different scroll that had been burned by the eruption at a nearby villa that had once been Julius Caesar’s father-in-law.
