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Computer Reveals Stone Tablet "Handwriting"

Posted by timothy on from the so-who-was-this-rosetta-guy-anyhow dept.

ewenc writes "A computer technique can tell the difference between ancient Greek inscriptions created by different artisans, a feat that ordinarily consumes years of human scholarship, reports New Scientist. A team of Greek computer scientists created the program after a scholar challenged them to attribute 24 inscriptions to their rightful cutter. The researchers scanned the tablets and constructed an average shape for several Greek letters in every tablet. After comparing the average letters between different tablets, they correctly attributed the inscriptions to six stone-cutters."

12 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Are they doing this in 3-D ? by mbone · · Score: 3, Interesting

    3-D would be an obvious add-on here - the depth of the cut stone incision should reveal a lot
    about the force being used, and I would expect that to be a distinguishing characteristic.

    1. Re:Are they doing this in 3-D ? by mbone · · Score: 5, Informative

      From TFA : "Panagopoulos says his team is looking to use 3D images in the future."

      So, not yet.

  2. A fine new era for classics by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As someone who majored in Classics as an undergraduate (before moving on to linguistics), I've gotten a lot of flack in technology nerd circles like Slashdot for spending time in such a field. Nowadays the value of study of the ancient world is seen as offering limited benefits, and the popular image of a classicist is of a bookish loser all alone in his musty, unvisited department. I think that's a pity especially because Classics is a field very ready to use new technology to help us better understand the past. The Oxyrynchus papyri, for example, a bunch of old papers found in an Egyptian garbage dump, have been scanned with state of the art cameras which have revealed whole new texts, including lost works by some of the great classic authors.

    So spending time with old inscriptions can still seem a worthy task to the Slashdot crowd. Beyond just using whizbang new technology, the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone for example (see e.g. Parkinson's Cracking Codes ) ought to fascinate the more mathematically oriented of us.

    1. Re:A fine new era for classics by rlseaman · · Score: 2, Informative

      Bringing it slightly back On Topic, this has nothing to do with translation of already readable stone inscriptions.

      Rather absurd to claim the original post in this thread was off topic. The article is about improving traffic analysis for ancient texts. An expert in ancient texts can't say, "Yay!", as a result?

      Its about determining which hammer and chisel jockey was involved in translating the "written on paper" to the "carved in stone". This is akin to determining if Margret typed your manuscript or if it was Walter.

      Exactly. And if Walter lived in 1870 and Margret in 1970, that would tell you a lot about the possible authorship of the document.

      Nothing at all about recovering last works or determining if you have risen to the status of a classic author.

      Experts in classics use all the same techniques of forensics and just plain logic as anybody else. In particular, they must assemble coherent texts from separate sources. This will help produce a self-consistent corpus. It is a prerequisite to all higher levels of scholarship.

  3. Data Storage Medium Longevity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It sounds like this medium is considerably longer lived than paper tape, 9-track reels, CDs, DVDs, or anything else I can think of storing important data on. Now all I need is a high density tablet drive.

    1. Re:Data Storage Medium Longevity by ZX-3 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Back then, they hadn't yet discovered that you could chisel a notch on the edge of the tablet and then use the other side.

    2. Re:Data Storage Medium Longevity by Amouth · · Score: 3, Funny

      the drive? cheap

      the tablets = very pricy

      they always get you with the media

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  4. "correctly attributed"? by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seems to me that it is impossible to verify that the machine analysis is correct, only that it matches the analysis done by a trained human. Proving correct attribution would require either a signature on each piece or the testimony of the original artisans.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:"correctly attributed"? by Fallen+Kell · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not really. Once you know you have a good training set (i.e. example work that has been verified and attributed to a particular artisan by being signed, or otherwise documented (like how we know which architects designed certain pyramids in Egypt)), that training set could be used to train the computer to look for other works that match the training set. This is no different than what the current experts are doing now to attribute the works to individuals, the difference is that a computer program has been designed to do the analysis, and it worked on the first sample set given to it. I would say that you need to test a few more samples, but the fact that it was correct on all the samples given so far is a good sign.

      --
      We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
  5. Ahem.. by hansraj · · Score: 3, Funny

    Q: Why does it take years for people to decode those scripts?
    A: Because it is all greek to us.

    Thank you, thank you. No autographs please.

  6. this just in by trb · · Score: 4, Funny

    They have identified their first inscription....

    ALL YOUR VASE ARE BELONG TO US

  7. Decoded. by Icegryphon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Upon Decoding the Tablets they found out one of the tablets said "The Game".