“Now, a group of researchers in France has made a key finding that could unlock the secrets of these scrolls for good. Using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, researchers bombarded scrolls from a villa in the town of Herculaneum with extremely high-intensity X-rays, in a process called scanning X-ray fluorescence. This caused certain elements in the scrolls to emit photons — to light up, essentially.” http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/03/22/herculaneum-scroll-ancient-inks/#.Vx6eTaUpDqC