[verditelabs]

We've been trying to automate since the beginning. A lot of it is automated but it's mostly the easier and less damaged parts of the scrolls. Scanning takes a few days for the biggest scrolls but the amount of human refinement is still a multi month process.

[fph]

Random shower thought: I wonder if it would be better in the long term to stop digging out archeological findings. The more we excavate, the more damage we do for future archaeologists who will have the superpower of reading these texts without even needing to dig the scrolls free and open them.

[Centigonal]

There is an active debate on exactly this topic when it comes to whether or not to excavate the tomb of Qin Shi Huang.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang

[flir]

Modern archaeologists are painfully aware that theirs is a destructive science, and do their best to mitigate that. The most extreme example is probably the tomb of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, where official policy on excavation can be boiled down to "not yet".

[verditelabs]

We stand on the shoulders of those that came before us. People have been trying to unroll and read the scrolls for 250 some odd years now. Had they not laid the groundwork for all that time we wouldn't be making the progress we are now.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

How many scrolls are intact (worldwide, rather than just France) that might still be recoverable?

[itsthecourier]

may you please tell us how much effort goes into each type of task in those months?

where else do you think these techniques be applied?