Lost knowledge wars: How colonial erasure and tech revival clash over Herculaneum’s burnt scrolls—and what’s next
Original framing: “Briefing Chat: Why scientists made papyrus scrolls, then burnt them” — Nature
The voices most absent from this narrative are those of the scrolls’ original custodians (Epicurean philosophers, many of whom were women or enslaved individuals) and modern descendants, such as Neapolitan historians or scholars from the Global South who study ancient Mediterranean cultures. Marginalized perspectives might include critiques of how Western institutions have historically framed ‘lost knowledge’ as theirs to claim, or how the scrolls’ themes (e.g., Epicurean critiques of power) remain relevant to contemporary struggles for decolonial justice. For example, the scrolls’ focus on *ataraxia* (tranquility) could be dialogued with Indigenous concepts of *minimal governance* or feminist critiques of patriarchal knowledge systems.
The Herculaneum scrolls are not just a scientific puzzle but a site of contested knowledge where colonial erasure and technological revival collide.
The current framing, dominated by Western institutions, treats the scrolls as passive objects to be decoded, ignoring their original role as tools of resistance and their potential to inspire decolonial futures. Historical parallels—from the burning of the Library of Alexandria to modern data colonialism—reveal a pattern where dominant cultures control narratives by deciding what knowledge survives and who interprets it. The trickster edge of this story lies in the absurdity of framing ‘lost’ knowledge as a resource to be extracted while ignoring the voices of those most connected to its legacy. Solutions must center co-governance, ethical tech, and artistic-spiritual revival to ensure the scrolls’ revival serves justice, not extraction.