OUT OF THE ASHES
For 250 years, scholars have struggled to unroll and read a collection of 1,800 carbonized and crumbling papyrus scrolls found in the wealthy Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum.
In the 21st century, promising new multi-spectral imaging technologies - enlisted by the National Library in Naples and Brigham Young University - reveal text that has not been seen for 2,000 years.
Out of the Ashes includes rare footage inside the partially excavated Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, where the scrolls were all found in the 18th century. Hundreds of works of fine sculpture were also unearthed at the villa, which was owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law. The program also includes a description of the J. Paul Getty Villa in Malibu, Calif., which was based on the floor-plan drawings of the original Villa of the Papyri.
Ironically, the destructive force of the volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum preserved this collection of papyri; the library probably would have deteriorated if it hadn't been carbonized and sealed under volcanic material.
In the 21st century, promising new multi-spectral imaging technologies - enlisted by the National Library in Naples and Brigham Young University - reveal text that has not been seen for 2,000 years.
Out of the Ashes includes rare footage inside the partially excavated Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, where the scrolls were all found in the 18th century. Hundreds of works of fine sculpture were also unearthed at the villa, which was owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law. The program also includes a description of the J. Paul Getty Villa in Malibu, Calif., which was based on the floor-plan drawings of the original Villa of the Papyri.
Ironically, the destructive force of the volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum preserved this collection of papyri; the library probably would have deteriorated if it hadn't been carbonized and sealed under volcanic material.
http://creativeworks.byu.edu/catalog/ViewItem.aspx?item=UC002
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