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Secrets of the Dead

How Technology Revived Seneca the Elder

Researcher Valeria Piano discovers long-lost history of Rome written by Seneca the Elder.

Aired 10/16/2024

Secrets of the Dead

How Technology Revived Seneca the Elder

Clip: Season 21 Episode 6 | 2m 53sVideo has Closed Captions

Researcher Valeria Piano discovers long-lost history of Rome written by Seneca the Elder.

Researcher Valeria Piano employs two different technological methods to decipher a carbonized scroll from Herculaneum. First, she uses a microscope to examine the texts, and then she studies images of the scrolls produced with infrared light. Her work has brought to light a history of Rome written by Seneca the Elder, long thought to have been lost forever.

Aired 10/16/2024

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SECRETS OF THE DEAD is made possible, in part, by public television viewers.

Decoding the Herculaneum Scrolls: AI Meets Ancient Texts

Video has Closed Captions

Artificial intelligence is used to find out what some carbonized Herculaneum scrolls say. (3m 34s)

Preview | The Herculaneum Scrolls

Video has Closed Captions

Scientists attempt to read ancient scrolls carbonized by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. (31s)

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