(CNN) — A newly deciphered text from ancient scrolls may have finally revealed the location of where Greek philosopher Plato was buried, along with how he really felt about the music played on his deathbed, according to Italian researchers.
The so-called Herculaneum papyri, charred after being buried under layers of volcanic ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, continue to be examined by experts using artificial intelligence and other technologies.
The latest revelation is that Plato is believed to have been buried in a secret garden near the sanctuary sacred to the Muses within the Academy of Athens that had been reserved for him, according to Graziano Ranocchia, professor of Papyrology at the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics at the University of Pisa.
Until now it was only known that he had been buried at the Academy, but not specifically where, Ranocchia told CNN on Tuesday.
The Academy of Athens was destroyed in 86 BC by the Roman general Sulla.
A statue of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in Athens, Greece. Credit: Brigida Soriano/Alamy
The text also provides more details about Plato’s last night, and it turns out that he was not happy with the music being played.
Until now, it was believed that the so-called “sweet notes”, played by a Thracian slave, were to Plato’s liking, as explained by experts in a presentation held in Naples last week.
But the texts now reveal that, in fact, despite having a high fever on his deathbed, he found the flute music to have a “poor sense of rhythm,” according to Ranocchia, who said he made the comments to a guest from Mesopotamia.
“He had a high fever and the music they were playing bothered him,” Ranocchia explained.
The newly deciphered text also clarifies the circumstances in which Plato was sold as a slave in 399 BC, after the death of Socrates, or in 404 BC, on the island of Aegina, after it was conquered by the Spartans. Ranocchia explained at the presentation in Naples. Previously, he was thought to have been sold into slavery in 387 BC while in Sicily.
The text is part of some 1,800 charred scrolls discovered in the 18th century in a building believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, who lived in Herculaneum, a coastal city about 20 kilometers from Pompeii.
Experts are using artificial intelligence along with optical coherence tomography, an imaging technique, and infrared hyperspectral imaging technology to read previously hidden text sequences from the partially destroyed papyri.
According to Ranocchia, who presented the results at the University of Naples on April 23, the latest discovery comes from a passage of more than 1,000 words (around 30% of the text) that had been deciphered and re-deciphered over the last anus.
View of Naples, Italy, with the Vesuvius volcano in the background. Credit: Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto/Getty Images
The discovery was made thanks to a grant of 2.5 million euros (US$ 2.7 million) from the European Union (ERC, European Research Council) awarded in 2021.
The project, called Greek Schools, is a five-year study that will use various technologies and methods to help decipher the fragile papyri.
“The increase in text roughly corresponds to the discovery of 10 new medium-sized papyrus fragments,” said Kilian Fleischer, editor of the papyri for the Greek Schools project at the presentation in Naples. “New readings are often based on new, concrete facts about Plato’s Academy, Hellenistic literature, Philodemus of Gadara, and ancient history in general.”
