Scientists have been left stunned by the 'return of a philosophical voice', one researcher said

Scientists have decoded a series of messages from ancient Rome for the very first time.

A series of ancient scrolls were burnt to a crisp as Pompeii burned lay unopened for millennia.

They come from the Roman town of Herculaneum, around 10 miles from Pompeii, which was covered in volcanic ash as Mount Vesuvius erupted.

Brittle and charred, the scrolls have survived, but would disintegrate if anyone tried to open them.

But now, using powerful X-ray facilities in Oxfordshire and Grenoble in the French Alps, a complete scroll has been unrolled.

The discoveries, announced on Thursday in Naples, include a newly identified book by Philodemus, the Epicurean philosopher, and possibly previously unknown work from influential Stoic philosopher Chrysippus.

Papyrologists - who study ancient documents and manuscripts - were stunned as more than 140 columns of new text were revealed.

Brent Seales, of the University of Kentucky, said: "It's only a matter of time until we read all of the scrolls."

"For nearly two millennia, many of these texts have been physically preserved but intellectually inaccessible... we are finally able to read them," he added.

The Vesuvius Challenge - supported by Elon Musk - has now set a bounty for a new prize - $1million for a fully-read scroll by this time last year.

The scrolls were first discovered in the 18th century in the Villa of the Papyri, which is believed to have belonged to the family of Julius Caesar's father-in-law.

As Vesuvius erupted, the volcanic debris carbonised the scrolls - preserving them from other decay which had destroyed other libraries.

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One parchment, named as PHerc 1667, was considered unreadable after being physically opened in the 1980s.

But using high-resolution micro-CT imaging at facilities including Diamond Light Source near Didcot, Oxfordshire and the European Synchroton Radiation Facility in Grenoble.

The scans produced three-dimensional X-ray maps of the papyrus layers inside the blackened rolls, which has resulted in the previously illegible scroll yielding nearly one and a half metres of continuous writing surface.

Federica Nicolardi, an assistant professor in papyrology at the University of Naples Federico II, said: "With the virtual unwrapping, we can follow sustained arguments across multiple columns. That's a transformational shift."

Researchers are now working to decipher the text, which is believed to be a philosophical treatise on ethics rooted in Stoic thought.

The author is believed to be Chrysippus - the third head of the Stoic school and one of antiquity's most influential philosophers - but little of his own writing has survived.

"If this text had been found in Egypt or anywhere else, it would probably have been classified straight away as a Stoic text," Mr Nicolardi said.

"The fact that it comes from a collection that is almost entirely Epicurean makes us more cautious in drawing conclusions."

He added: "This is not just a technical recovery, it's the return of a philosophical voice."

More than 600 known Herculaneum scrolls are still unopened and unexplored sections of the villa may contain more.