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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
Ancient text reveals details of Plato’s burial place and final | |
evening, experts say | |
By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN | |
Updated: | |
11:52 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Newly-deciphered text from ancient scrolls may have finally revealed | |
the location of where Greek philosopher Plato was buried, along with | |
how he really felt about music played at his deathbed, according to | |
Italian researchers. | |
The so-called, which were charred after being buried under layers of | |
volcanic ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D, | |
continue to be examined by experts using artificial intelligence and | |
other technologies. | |
The latest revelation is that Plato is believed to have been buried in | |
a secret garden near the sacred shrine to Muses inside the Platonic | |
Academy of Athens that had been reserved for him, according to Graziano | |
Ranocchia, professor of Papyrology at the Department of Philology, | |
Literature and Linguistic at the University of Pisa. | |
It was previously only known that he was buried in the academy, but not | |
specifically where, Ranocchia told CNN Tuesday. | |
The Platonic Academy was destroyed in 86 B.C. by Roman general Sulla. | |
The text also provides more detail about Plato’s final night – and | |
he wasn’t a fan of the music that was played. | |
It had previously been thought that the so-called “sweet notes” | |
played by a slave woman from Thrace were pleasing to Plato, experts | |
said at a presentation in Naples last week. | |
But the texts now reveal that in fact, despite running a high fever on | |
his deathbed, he found that the flute music had a “scant sense of | |
rhythm,” according to Ranocchia, who said he made the comments to a | |
guest from Mesopotamia. | |
“He was running a high fever and was bothered by the music they were | |
playing,” Ranocchia said. | |
The newly deciphered text also gives further clarity to the | |
circumstances surrounding how Plato was sold as a slave in either 399 | |
BC after the death of Socrates or in 404 BC on the island of Aegina | |
after the island was conquered by the Spartans, Ranocchia said in the | |
presentation in Naples. Previously, it was thought he had been sold | |
into slavery in 387 BC while in Sicily. | |
The text is part of around 1,800 carbonized scrolls discovered in the | |
18th century in a building believed to have belonged to the | |
father-in-law of Julius Caesar, who lived in Herculaneum, a seaside | |
town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Pompeii. | |
Experts are using AI along with optical coherence tomography, an | |
imaging technique, and infrared hyperspectral imaging technology to | |
read sequences of previously hidden text from the papyri that had been | |
partially destroyed. | |
The latest discovery came from a passage of more than 1,000 words — | |
about 30% of the text — that had been deciphered and re-deciphered | |
over the last year, according to Ranocchia, who presented the findings | |
at the University of Naples on April 23. | |
The discovery was made thanks to a €2.5 million ($2.7 million) grant | |
from the European Union (ERC – European Research Council) that was | |
awarded in 2021. | |
The project, called the Greek Schools project, is a five-year study | |
using various technologies and methods to help decipher the fragile | |
papyri. | |
“The increase in text roughly corresponds to the discovery of 10 new | |
medium-sized papyrus fragments,” Kilian Fleischer, the editor of the | |
papyri for the Greek Schools project said at the presentation in | |
Naples. “The new readings often draw on new and concrete facts about | |
Plato’s Academy, Hellenistic literature, Philodemus of Gadara and | |
ancient history in general.” | |
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