In this double lecture, sponsored by the Custard Institute for Spanish Art & Culture, we delve into the discoveries at the ancient site of Herculaneum.

Kenneth Lapatin, Associate Curator of Antiquities, J. Paul Getty Museum
“The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Early Excavations and New Discoveries”
Since it was first explored in the eighteenth century by work crews under the direction of a Swiss military engineer employed by the Bourbon king of Naples, the so-called Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum has yielded more sculpture than any other private residence from classical antiquity, as well as frescoes, ivories, and its famed library of papyrus scrolls. This presentation surveys the history of the excavations and the finds recovered, from the 1750s up to the present day, when cutting-edge technologies like laser scans, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are enhancing our knowledge about this extraordinary Roman luxury villa and its inhabitants.

Brent Seales, The Stan and Karen Pigman Chair of Heritage Science, Professor of Computer Science, University of Kentucky
“Unlost: Recovering the Text of the Unopenable Herculaneum Scrolls”
The Herculaneum papyrus scrolls, buried and carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and excavated in the eighteenth century, preserve classical texts from the shelves of the only library to have survived from antiquity. In 1999 attempts to unwrap them were permanently halted, leaving more than four hundred scrolls still unopened. However, recent advances in high-energy physics and artificial intelligence have made it possible to read these ancient texts for the first time in two thousand years, rendering them “unlost.”

Sponsored by the Custard Institute for Spanish Art & Culture. Seating is limited, advance registration required.

$10; free for members, SMU faculty/staff/students, and other non-SMU faculty/staff/students