GoKawiilVesuvius Challenge awards $50K prize for first text recovered from PHerc. 306B
Researchers Liam Warner and Nicola Bodill won the Vesuvius Challenge's First Letters Prize for recovering readable ink text from PHerc. 306B, a carbonized scroll buried by Vesuvius in AD79. The find also clarified that 306B is the upper portion of the original scroll, with 306A its lower section, after 25 community submissions were reviewed.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The discovery suggests the previously unreadable 306B fragment may now be worth prioritizing for further scanning and virtual unrolling, since ink has finally been confirmed there. The close competition, with several entries falling just one or two characters short of the prize threshold, indicates the broader community is rapidly improving techniques for reading carbonized scrolls.
- Liam Warner and Nicola Bodill won a $50,000 prize for recovering 10+ readable characters from PHerc. 306B
- The find revealed PHerc. 306B is the scroll's upper portion, while PHerc. 306A is the lower portion
- Multiple other teams came close, recovering 7-9 characters before the winning submission
Source: scrollprize.substack.com — Paul Henderson, 2026-11-02
Published there as: “Writing seen in PHerc. 306B, for the first time in 2000 years”
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