Viggen Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Pretty Amazing!!! Ancient scrolls that were burned black and buried in ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly two thousand years ago have begun to give up their secrets. Researchers in Italy used a powerful x-ray procedure to read out the first words from two of the Roman scrolls, which belong to the only library to have survived from the ancient world. The papyrus scrolls are among hundreds discovered in 1754 that made up an entire library in a small room of a huge villa in Herculaneum, a Roman city that was destroyed alongside Pompeii when the volcano erupted... via The Guardian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indianasmith Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 I read this earlier today. I wonder what those scrolls will contain? This is very exciting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guy Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 (edited) It really does sound exciting: I wonder why more of that kind of research wasn't done earlier. Perhaps Italy's financial crisis prevented further study. http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-scrolls-scorched-vesuvius-may-read-again-162718464.html;_ylt=AwrSyCTCjr5UIUoAWsPQtDMD guy also known as gaius Edited January 21, 2015 by guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostOfClayton Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 "Would fall" and "would say", eh? My Centurion once knew a Gaul Who, when rising from drinking, would fall The Optio would say, Putting more drink away, Come on, man, you've had bugger all! Seriously though. Yes it's going to be a rival to the Vindolanda tablets if they get much more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onasander Posted January 22, 2015 Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 I'm guessing the same as other libraries, alot of greek and latin texts on history, philosophy, and tracts on the arts and sciences, sometimes encyclopedic in scope. Some plays for local actors and slaves. And smut. Lots and lots of perverted smut. I'm not joking. We're gonna blush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted February 2, 2015 Report Share Posted February 2, 2015 The BBC are now carrying a copy of the video presentation as well. So far as what the scrolls contain if those which have already been forced open by the techniques developed in the 18th and 19th centuries are anything to go by then there is liable to be a significant number of Epicurean texts so mainly philosophical in nature but I believe that a few other scrolls have been identified so possibly some plays and other material will be found as well. Finds of smut may actually be fairly limited but there are several scholars who would dearly love for one of the 450 undamaged so totally unread scrolls to contain at least one of the lost nine books of lyric poetry written by Sappho. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted February 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2015 The BBC are now carrying a copy of the video presentation as well. So far as what the scrolls contain if those which have already been forced open by the techniques developed in the 18th and 19th centuries are anything to go by then there is liable to be a significant number of Epicurean texts so mainly philosophical in nature but I believe that a few other scrolls have been identified so possibly some plays and other material will be found as well. Finds of smut may actually be fairly limited but there are several scholars who would dearly love for one of the 450 undamaged so totally unread scrolls to contain at least one of the lost nine books of lyric poetry written by Sappho. Thanks Melvadius for your Insights, always appreciated and nice to see you around! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted February 3, 2015 Report Share Posted February 3, 2015 It's been a while but life has calmed down a bit now so hopefully I will be able to participate fully again once I sort out the changes to the sites platform Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indianasmith Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 It is always exciting to see new troves of written records from the ancient world come to light. So much history was lost forever! I'd love to see a copy of Sulla's lost autobiography, or Claudius' History of the Etruscans, turn up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onasander Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Ummm... Epicurian Philosophy is Smut. He attracted a lot of prostitutes. Leontion was the most famous, she used to lounge around in his Garden and talk smack about Theophrastus and other local dignitaries, I recall her sayings were well recounted in the larger movement years after. A lot of what was recovered so far was from the early members of the Epicurian movement, and the later thinker Philodemus. Like I said, prepare for the smut. The Epicurians attracted hedonistic prostitutes, the Stoics and Peripatetics were bisexual child molesters (and they were outright advocates of this lifestyle), and the Cynics literally screwed everywhere, alone or with each other. There was also the beginning strains in these movements a sort of asceticism that moved away from this, but I gotta say, I don't think the readers here quite grasp just how.... perverted they could get. We are going to get a lot of smut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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