Deciphering scrolls with tomography: A training experiment

The recovery of severely damaged ancient written documents has proven to be a major challenge for many scientists, mainly due to the impracticality of physical unwrapping them. Non-destructive techniques, such as X-ray computed tomography (CT), combined with computer vision algorithms, have emerged as a means of facilitating the virtual reading of the hidden contents of the damaged documents. This paper proposes an educational laboratory aimed at simulating the entire process of acquisition and virtual recovery of the ancient works. We have developed an experimental setup that uses visible light to replace the detrimental X-rays, and a didactic software pipeline that allows students to virtually reconstruct a transparent rolled sheet with printed text on it, the wrapped scroll.