Writing seen in PHerc. 306B, for the first time in 2000 years

On Hacker News

Points: 116
Comments: 16
Submitted by: benbreen
Posted: Nov 2, 2026
Site: scrollprize.substack.com

Story details from Hacker News ↗ · linked article on scrollprize.substack.com.

Trending history

Writing seen in PHerc. 306B, for the first time in 2000 years was first seen on Hacker News · Front page on Nov 3, 2026. Since then it has appeared in 75 checks on 2 different days. Its best position was #12 of 30, reached on Nov 4, 03:52 UTC. It dropped off the list after Nov 4, 08:52 UTC.

Rank history

Position on Hacker News · Front page at every check (lower is better).

Last 14 days

Best rank per day (UTC).

13

12

Oct 26today

Metric history

Platform metric as reported by Hacker News.

From the discussion

A few top-level comments from Hacker News, shortened. Read the full thread on Hacker News.

It's really surprising to me that we have these language fragments that exist without any samples referencing the language itself. I suppose for very young languages there wasn't a lot of need to specify that something was written in one vs the other given that any reader could just plainly see it with their eyes and…
— goodmythical · view comment

There is all sorts of amazing science happening in the world right now, and as a layperson I have a "hot list" of probably a dozen different topics that can make me jump up and down when there's a new announcement. But the Herculaneum scrolls, for some reason, are a special case. I get just unreasonably excited…
— bgribble · view comment

I love the human sense (or vision) that we could find these in the 1750s as carbonized logs and know that we should keep and protect them - that we miiiiight be able to read them someday.
— baoooooooooooo · view comment

Featured in

Archived daily, weekly and monthly lists that include this entry.

Hacker News 2 days, best #12

Nov 4 #12 Nov 3 #13 Week 45 November 2026

Questions

Is Writing seen in PHerc. 306B, for the first time in 2000 years trending on Hacker News right now?

Not at the moment. It was last on the list on Nov 4, 08:52 UTC, after 2 days of trending.

What is the highest rank Writing seen in PHerc. 306B, for the first time in 2000 years reached?

#12 on Hacker News · Front page, on Nov 4, 03:52 UTC. Trendoday checks this list every 15 minutes.

How long has Writing seen in PHerc. 306B, for the first time in 2000 years been trending?

It was first seen on Nov 3, 2026 and has been on the list on 2 days (75 checks) since.