Lead Ink Could Unveil Herculaneum Scrolls, Researchers Test with Fake Scrolls
Researchers propose that lead in the ink of Herculaneum scrolls could make the writing detectable with X-ray CT, enabling virtual unrolling to reveal text; to test the idea, they created fake scrolls with varying lead concentrations, burned them, scanned with 3D CT, and used an algorithm to extract the text, demonstrating that lead enhances contrast and can be detected by handheld XRF—potentially guiding archaeologists to decipher carbonized scrolls.
