It was possible to establish the burial place of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato

Italian scientists managed to establish the burial place of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. About it stated researcher Graziano Ranocchia from the University of Pisa. Ranocchia is deciphering papyri from Herculaneum, an ancient library found by archaeologists in the 18th century during excavations of a villa destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

One of the scrolls, written by the philosopher Philodemus, close to the Epicurean school, describes in detail the history of the Athenian Academy – an informal philosophical circle of Socrates, Plato and their students. The scroll indicates the almost exact location of the burial. Previously, scientists only knew that Plato’s grave was located somewhere in the Academy’s garden.

Deciphering this and other scrolls from Herculaneum has become possible thanks to new technologies. Previously, many of them were considered almost unreadable, and many, due to their dilapidation, could not even be opened. Ranocchia and his team used “bionic eye” and artificial intelligence technologies were able to recreate about a thousand previously undeciphered words – this is approximately 30% of the total text. The philosophical papyrus will be finally deciphered by 2026.

• Plato of Athens is one of the greatest philosophers in ancient history, a student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. His philosophy formed the basis of European humanities. The Academus Garden, where philosophers gathered for learned conversations, gave its name to the term “academy”, meaning scientific community. Plato died in 347 BC.