BROWSER / NO INSTALL
Look around first
Explore published scroll geometry in Unroll. Then try the official ink-labeling and surface-tracing exercises. Your first goal is to distinguish a CT slice, a traced surface and an ink prediction.
VESUVIUS CHALLENGE / RESEARCH & OPEN SOFTWARE
Ancient scrolls.
Checkable steps.
The Vesuvius Challenge brings scanning, geometry, machine learning and papyrology together to recover text from carbonized scrolls. Our contribution is software for exploring that process, testing its outputs and making the evidence easier to inspect.
This collection presents public engineering work and measured comparisons. It does not announce a new scroll reading, title identification or prize result.
From a scan to a reading.
The Herculaneum papyri were carbonized in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. Fragile, compressed layers make physical opening destructive. Virtual unwrapping works from X-ray computed tomography (CT), but a scan is only the beginning. The official introduction explains the challenge and provides interactive exercises.
- 01 / SCAN
A volume, not a page
CT produces a three-dimensional grid of voxels. Orthogonal slices help locate papyrus layers. A crop needs a known sample, axis order and voxel size; a full scroll can occupy terabytes.
- 02 / TRACE
Follow one sheet
Segmentation traces a papyrus surface through that volume. A trace can jump to a neighboring layer or cross itself. Inspect it in several CT views before making it larger.
- 03 / RENDER
Flatten the geometry
A surface is flattened and sampled along its normal to form a surface volume: a thin stack of layers around the sheet. Its depth axis, orientation and physical scale matter downstream.
- 04 / DETECT INK
Make a prediction
An ink model or image filter produces a two-dimensional score map. Fibers, cracks and geometry can also make patterns. Compare with known labels and a suitable negative control.
- 05 / PROPOSE TEXT
Inspect letter hypotheses
A text reader can suggest letters from an existing image. Supplied lines and letter height simplify the problem; automatic layout is harder. A plausible word is not evidence by itself.
- 06 / ASSESS
Bring in the experts
Papyrologists assess legibility, language and context against the image evidence. Software confidence and successful execution do not certify an interpretation.
Start small. Learn what a check means.
OFFLINE / KNOWN ANSWER
Try a control that fails
Download Scrolls Starter and open it in a browser. Move a threshold over a drawn INK pattern, then put the same pattern into its control. The exercise should change to PRACTICE FAIL. No Python, GPU or account is needed.
OFFICIAL DATA / ONE CROP
Inspect a small volume
The official Get to Know a Dataset notebook introduces metadata and a bounded crop. Read cells before running them, check the data terms, use CPU for this first inspection and stop after the small example. Our walkthrough explains axes and memory.
OFFICIAL TOOLS / ONE TASK
Trace, then try ink
Use the official VC3D tutorial to navigate a sample and follow a sheet. The ink-detection tutorial comes next. Our tools are optional: you can use the official workflow directly.
For installation, use the single Start Here guide, with macOS, Windows and Linux commands, expected results and troubleshooting. The picture guide shows the actual screens. Starter itself never downloads scans, runs inference, rents compute or uploads files; its optional command builder prepares a command for you to inspect and run.
Our work fits around the official pipeline.
Make the workflow approachable
Unroll, Scroll Lens and Starter provide different ways to explore. Workbench collects small command-line tools; it is not one large application window. Browser exploration, hosted inference and local CPU processing have different requirements.
Choose a tool by taskMake comparisons inspectable
Inkfilter publishes a frozen numerical recipe and saved-score evidence. Scroll Text Reader records its model and controls. AutoPipeline coordinates stages and retains their outputs. Their limits are part of the documentation.
What the measurements supportKeep the primary sources close.
- Vesuvius Challenge: Get Started — the organizer’s introduction and exercises.
- Official data and terms and Data Browser — volumes, surfaces and available outputs; check each dataset’s license.
- ScrollPrize/villa — the official VC3D and Vesuvius software repository, documentation and releases.
- Virtual Unwrapping with VC3D and Ink Detection — the next practical steps.
- Current prize terms — consult the organizer before planning an eligible attempt or sharing a potential discovery.
Public sources reviewed 18 October 2026. Hendrick Research is an independent contributor, not the organizer of the Vesuvius Challenge. Software, models and datasets have separate licenses. Public source and corrections. Screenshot sources and hashes.