[suddenlybananas]

Scrolls from Herculaneum have been read for a very long time. Not disputing the achievement of digitally unrolling one, but the scrolls from the library of have been studied since the 18th century.

[verditelabs]

I think it's a case of HN once again butchering the title. I submitted it as the exact title from our page on scrollprize.org, "An _Entire_ Herculaneum Scroll Has Been Read For The First Time", which is IIRC true.

[dang]

Ok, I've restored the entire title above. Sorry about that!

(Btw, you can use the 'edit' link to fix things like this if the software gets a title change wrong.)

[legitster]

*Some scrolls.

They are in a variety of conditions - some of them people were able to "break" open and read. But the vast majority of what remains is too delicate and brittle to risk.

[tokai]

Sure, but its the potential scale that is important. There are also more scrolls still in the ground, which would make sense to dig out if they could be read.

[suddenlybananas]

Of course! But the title is misleading and gives people the impression that we don't already know the library is just full of Epicurean texts.

[IAmBroom]

It's also technically incorrect. The texts have been read; this particular text was read for the first time in the modern era.