Secrets of the Herculaneum papyri: an Italian scientist found Plato’s tomb

Graziano Ranocchia, a papyrologist at the University of Pisa, said he had found the exact burial site of Plato by deciphering papyri found nearly 300 years ago at Herculaneum near Naples.

According to researchers, the findings indicate that Plato was buried at the Academy in Athens, in the garden next to the “Temple of the Muses.” This was established thanks to a new interpretation of papyri written by Philodemus of the Epicurean school, which detail the history of the Academy.

“Compared with previous editions, the text has now changed almost radically, implying a number of new and specific facts about various academic philosophers,” Ranocchia said in a statement. —Among the most important news we read that Plato was buried in the garden of the Academy at Athens reserved for him, next to the so-called Museion or Sacellum, dedicated to the Muses. Until now, all that was known was that he was buried on the territory of the Academy.”

Plato, who died around 347 BC. BC, considered one of the greatest Greek philosophers. Together with his mentor Socrates and student Aristotle, he laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science.

The Herculaneum papyri, discovered in the 18th century, contain more than 1,800 prehistoric scrolls. They were discovered in a luxurious villa called the Villa of the Papyri, a Roman estate in Herculaneum, Italy, where they lay for centuries under a layer of volcanic ash after the eruption of Vesuvius.

The scrolls represent the only large-scale library from Antiquity that has been preserved in its entirety.

Scientists have been trying to decipher the scrolls for decades. Now artificial intelligence technologies have come to their aid.

With their help, Ranocchia and his team were able to read about 1,000 words – approximately 30% of the entire text – and believe that they will completely decipher the papyrus by 2026. They took hundreds of infrared photographs of the charred scrolls, allowing them to see not only the front, but also the back of the papyrus. The findings were then analyzed by a computer.

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The charred scrolls were discovered in 1752 at a villa near the Bay of Naples believed to have once belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, but their full contents remain a mystery because scientists found them too fragile to unroll.

Plato’s Academy was a famous school in ancient Athens, founded outside the city walls in the northwest of the city in 387 BC. In 86 BC. e. it was destroyed by order of the Roman dictator Sulla.

New analysis also suggests that Plato may have been sold into slavery in 399 BC. e. after the death of Socrates or in 404 BC. e. during the conquest of the island of Aegina by the Spartans.

Until now it was believed that Plato was sold into slavery in 387 BC. e. during his stay in Sicily at the court of Dionysius I of Syracuse.

There are differences in how Cicero and Hermippus talk about Plato’s death: Cicero says that he died while writing, and Hermippus says that he died at a wedding at the age of 81 and was buried in the Academy.