Burnt to a crisp by lava from Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the reams of rolled-up papyrus were discovered in a mansion in Herculaneum — an ancient Roman town near Pompeii — in the mid-18th century.

Charred by the flames of a funeral pyre, the Derveni Papyrus has proved to be a fascinating—and confounding—artifact Teresa Nowakowski Daily Correspondent The Derveni Papyrus, named for the ...