Science & Tech · AI · 3 hrs ago
AI helps historians decode a Napoleonic letter and read charred papyri
An AI model decoded a secret letter from 1809 in six hours, revealing details about French and allied troop positions.
The letter was ordered coded by Napoleon and addressed to one of his generals.
AI is also helping researchers read Herculaneum papyri, which were charred when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 and are too fragile to unroll.
X-ray scans and AI analysis revealed writing in one scroll, identified as a Stoic work on ethics.
Researchers are using AI to process millions of historical pages, including Hebrew manuscripts and medieval records from Notre-Dame in Paris.
The searchable texts can help historians find connections among people, places and ideas across documents that were previously difficult to access.
Researchers want to improve these tools and use them to broaden understanding of the past.
An OpenAI model decoded a secret letter from 1809 in six hours, revealing details about French and allied troop positions.
The letter was ordered coded by Napoleon and addressed to one of his generals.
AI and X-ray scans have also helped researchers reveal writing in fragile Herculaneum papyri, charred in the eruption of Vesuvius.
Researchers are using AI to transcribe large collections of historical manuscripts and records.
Projects in France are developing tools to transcribe and decode old diplomatic and military messages.
- Who
- AI engineer Carter Church decoded the letter; Napoleon had ordered it coded.
- What
- An AI model decoded a secret letter from 1809 that detailed French and allied positions.
- When
- The letter dates to 1809. Church’s AI model decoded it in six hours.
- Where
- The letter was published in an online university archive. The archive’s location is not stated.
- Why
- AI can help historians decipher coded messages and analyze historical texts that are difficult or impossible to read manually.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The eruption of Vesuvius charred the Herculaneum papyri.
Napoleon ordered a letter to one of his generals to be written in code.
Researchers announced the first complete virtual unrolling of a papyrus held at the National Library of Naples.
- Letter date
- 1809
- Decoding time
- Six hours
- Letter contents
- French and allied positions
- Herculaneum papyri
- Charred in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79
- Midrash project
- Transcribing 10 million pages of Hebrew manuscripts
What people are saying
What AI brings above all is perseverance
There are entire centuries where we are completely lost
We are transcribing 10 million pages of Hebrew manuscripts. It is gigantic. No human being could process such an amount