‘Second renaissance’: tech uncovers ancient scroll secrets of Plato and co

Passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on Plato’s final hours. Photograph: National Research Institute

More than 2,000 years after Plato died, the towering figure of classical antiquity and founder of the Academy, regarded by many as the first university in the west, can still make front-page news.

Researchers this week claimed to have found the final resting place of the Greek philosopher, a patch in the garden of his Athens Academy, after scanning an ancient papyrus scroll recovered from the library of a Herculaneum villa that was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.