While scientists and others were mesmerised at the weekend by pictures taken of Saturn's moon after the Huygens spaceprobe's two billion mile journey, an Oxford conference was discussing something more down to earth: what to do about treasures lying beneath the earth at Herculaneum, the city buried in volcanic matter after an eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. Some members of the Herculaneum Society, hosts for the conference, believe that Herculaneum's buried "Villa of Papyri", which may contain missing works by Pliny, Euripides and Aristotle, ought to be excavated before Vesuvius erupts again.

There are no direct links between these two events beyond the facts that Saturn and Herculaneum - like nearby Naples (Neapolis or new town) have Latin names taken from the Greek, and also that multi-spectral imaging, which has been used to "see" writing hidden in rolls of papyrus discovered at Herculaneum, was developed during the last 30 years as a result of research into space. There is a connection, however in terms of the priorities of limited resources. How can we balance the huge spending on space research against expenditure on the war in Iraq (with associated damage to the historic site of Babylon) or the much more modest sums needed to unlock knowledge from the past at places like Herculaneum. Optimists believe they could include lost plays by Euripides, works of Aristotle and the missing histories of Livy. It is not an easy decision. Some experts feel that buried books at Herculaneum should be left unexposed to daylight until we have the technology to preserve them for ever. Others say we should use current technology before they get buried even deeper by an eruption of Vesuvius, now overdue. One option is to tunnel into the lost library of the Villa of Papyri under the modern town of Ercolano which now lies on top of it. The balance of expert opinion seems to be that there is a chance of finding the library. The opportunity to unearth such priceless treasures is too good to ignore. We must know the past before we can understand the future.