It was there that several scrolls, now held by the Institut de France, were discovered in the library of a wealthy residence in the 18th century. Two of them are attracting particular attention today—so much so that a research team led by Brent Seales (University of Kentucky, Great Britain) is offering a $250,000 prize for deciphering them. They are probably two historical works that could provide a wealth of information about daily life at the time.
So where does mathematics come into all this? The two scrolls are in fact completely charred and cannot be unrolled without being damaged. However, both papyri have been scanned, and a tomographic scan has revealed some information without opening them, by detecting minute variations in their structure. The next step is to process the images via artificial intelligence techniques.
The idea behind the prize is to pool efforts and foster competition so as to improve the performance of existing algorithms. Thus begins a tremendous scientific adventure in which every discipline will play its part.
