vesuvius_scroll_decode.py

# Herculaneum Scroll · ML Pipeline
# WEDS Expedition · Vesuvius Challenge

import numpy as np
import torch
from weds.vision import PhaseContrastCT

class ScrollSegmenter(torch.nn.Module):
  def __init__(self, resolution=8):
    self.voxel_res = resolution  # μm
    self.layers    = UNet3D(depth=5)
    self.decoder   = InkDetector()

  def forward(self, x):
    x = self.layers(x)
    return self.decoder.predict_ink(x)

# Load 8µm tomographic slices
scan = PhaseContrastCT.load(
  "PHerc1667_segment_1.tif"
)
model = ScrollSegmenter(resolution=8)
text  = model.forward(scan.voxels)

print(f"Recovered: {text.confidence:.1%}")
# → Recovered: 94.3%

Est. — Data & Field Science Collective

Where Exploration
Meets the Algorithm

Applying machine learning, remote sensing, and computational analysis to the world's most demanding scientific and artistic field expeditions.

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Core Disciplines

Data Science
in the Field

We sit at the convergence of rigorous scientific fieldwork and advanced computational methods — where satellite imagery meets papyrus, where sonar maps ancient seafloors.

📜

Ancient Artefact Recovery

3D computed tomography, multi-spectral imaging and neural ink detection applied to carbonised papyri from Herculaneum, fragments from the Dead Sea and beyond.

🌊

Underwater Exploration

Sonar bathymetry, ROV photogrammetry and deep-learning wreck classification to map and document submerged cultural heritage and geological formations.

🌍

Climate & Earth Data

Processing satellite, ice-core and ocean sensor data to reconstruct paleoclimate records, model future extremes, and support scientific expeditions in polar and arid environments.

🔭

Remote Sensing

LiDAR, hyperspectral and SAR imaging to discover hidden landscapes — from buried Roman roads to subglacial rivers beneath Antarctic ice sheets.

🧬

Biological Field Data

eDNA sequencing, acoustic monitoring and population modelling in biodiversity-rich expedition environments, from deep ocean trenches to tropical canopy.

🗺️

Expedition Analytics

Integrated data platforms for expedition planning, real-time field analytics, and post-expedition archival — built to RGS and BS 8848 standards.

Active & Recent Work

Expeditions & Projects

From the Mediterranean seabed to Mount Vesuvius, our collective deploys data science where it has never been applied before.

Featured · Ongoing

The Vesuvius Scrolls — Herculaneum Ink Detection

Working alongside the Vesuvius Challenge, applying 3D convolutional neural networks to phase-contrast X-ray CT scans of carbonised papyri buried by the AD 79 eruption. Our pipeline detects trace carbon ink at sub-voxel resolution — recovering text lost for two millennia from the Villa of the Papyri library.

📍 Herculaneum, Campania ⚗ 8µm CT Resolution 🧠 U-Net 3D Segmentation

Deep-Sea Survey

HMS Challenger Route — Bathymetric Reanalysis

Re-examining the original 1872–76 sounding data from the Challenger Expedition using modern interpolation and deep-learning bathymetry classification to build the highest-resolution historic seafloor map ever produced.

📍 Pacific & Atlantic 📡 Multibeam Sonar

Climate Science

Polar Climate Reconstruction — Ice Core Analytics

Processing multi-proxy paleoclimate datasets from Antarctic and Greenland ice cores. Machine learning models reconstruct 800,000-year temperature records and identify climate tipping-point signatures invisible to classical statistical methods.

📍 Antarctica / Greenland 🧊 800ka Record

About the Collective

Who We Are

Matthew Marriott FRAS FRGS — Founder, World Exploration Data Science

Fellow, Royal Geographical Society (FRGS)

Fellow, Royal Asiatic Society (FRAS)

University of York, Alumnus

Saïd Business School, Oxford

Harvard Kennedy School

Cambridge Judge Business School

Founder & Director

Matthew Marriott
FRAS · FRGS

"Data science is not a desk discipline. The most important discoveries await not in server rooms but in places that are difficult, remote, and dangerous — and our role is to be present in both worlds simultaneously."

World Exploration Data Science was founded by Matthew Marriott FRAS FRGS — explorer, writer, data scientist, and Fellow of both the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Geographical Society. Drawing on a lifetime of fieldwork across deserts, oceans, and ancient civilisations, Matthew established WEDS to close the gap between cutting-edge computational methods and the reality of scientific and artistic expeditions in the field.

Matthew's heritage runs deep through exploration history. He is a direct descendant of Sir John Murray, the pioneering oceanographer of the HMS Challenger Expedition (1872–76) — the voyage that founded the science of oceanography and first mapped the deep ocean floor. That tradition of rigorous, evidence-based field science is the founding DNA of WEDS.

A published author (The Renaissance Diet: Eat and Drink Like Leonardo Da Vinci), landscape photographer, and host of the Whiskey and a Map: True Stories of Adventure podcast, Matthew brings the perspective of a storyteller as well as a scientist to the collective's work — ensuring that data captured in the field is not only analytically rigorous but compellingly communicated.

WEDS draws together data scientists, oceanographers, archaeologists, climatologists, and field explorers united by a single conviction: the most important data in the world is still waiting to be found.

Get In Touch

Contact

Enquiries about collaboration, expedition partnership, or data science commissions.

Location

United Kingdom

Previous Clients

🏔️ Komoot, the adventure app

Enquiries about collaboration, expedition partnership, or data science commissions are welcome.

✉ Contact Us

explorationhorizon@pm.me

// Exploration Data Science

Work With WEDS

We offer specialist consultation in exploration data science — from expedition field analytics and remote sensing pipeline design, to ML-powered artefact recovery and climate data modelling. Whether you are a scientific institution, documentary team, cultural heritage body, or independent expedition, we bring rigorous data science to the places that need it most.

🗺️

Expedition Analytics

Field data capture, real-time sensor pipelines, and post-expedition archival to RGS standards.

🧠

ML & Computer Vision

Neural networks for artefact imaging, ink detection, and pattern recognition in historical materials.

📡

Remote Sensing & Climate

Satellite, LiDAR, sonar, and ice-core data processing for scientific and artistic field projects.

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