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Digital Papyrology: Vindolanda and Advanced Imaging Techniques

Digital Papyrology: Vindolanda and Advanced Imaging Techniques. Dr Melissa Terras m.terras@ucl.ac.uk Department of Engineering Science / School of Library, Archive, and Information Studies Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents University College London

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Digital Papyrology: Vindolanda and Advanced Imaging Techniques

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  1. Digital Papyrology: Vindolanda and Advanced Imaging Techniques Dr Melissa Terras m.terras@ucl.ac.uk Department of Engineering Science / School of Library, Archive, and Information Studies Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents University College London University of Oxford

  2. Vindolanda Texts • Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall, England • Texts from AD 92 onwards • Two types • ink texts • Carbon ink on wood. 300 texts survive • stylus tablets • recessed centre filled with wax. 100 texts • Only contemporary and immediate written evidence of Roman Army in Britain

  3. Vindolanda Ink Tablet

  4. Stylus Tablet - Wax Intact

  5. Stylus Tablet - Wax Removed

  6. Close up - Tablet 1563 • Complex incisions • Woodgrain • Surface discolouration • Warping • Cracking • Noisy image • Palimpsest • Long process

  7. Vindolanda and Research • Experts were observed reading ancient texts • Use raking light • Digital Imaging Techniques were developed to analyse the surface of texts and to identify candidate strokes • “Phase Congruency” • Professor Sir Mike Brady, Dr Veit Schenk, Dr Nick Molton, Dr Xiao-bo Pan

  8. Elevational Analysis Digital camera Elevation, above the horizontal plane, typically 0 and 60 degrees

  9. Changing Shadows

  10. Original Text - Tablet 974

  11. Phase Congruency - Tablet 974

  12. Can this be improved?

  13. What Is The Problem? Need to build a system which aids in the transcription of the stylus texts • Need to understand the process of reading an ancient text • Information from the Vindolanda ink texts • Palaeographical • Linguistic • Mobilise knowledge of these to implement a system • Dovetail with Image Processing System • Cognitive Image Understanding System

  14. Model of the Papyrology Process

  15. Palaeographical Information • Old Roman Cursive (ORC) • Every day Roman Script • Same used on ink and stylus? • Forensic evidence • => ink info can be used for stylus texts

  16. Annotating Program

  17. Result of Annotations • 9 Documents annotated • 1506 ink characters annotated • 180 characters from stylus tablets • 300 hours of work • 6 or 7 characters annotated per hour • Allowed comparison of character info • First major palaeographic dataset of ORC

  18. Vindolanda System

  19. System in Action

  20. Conclusion • Built a prototype computer system that takes in unknown text and provides readings of that text based on known probabilities • Built for a specific audience • Proof of concept to show strength of architecture • Indicate possibilities of a “Signal to Symbol” system • No reason why this couldn’t be expanded across various types of text • Or individual tools – image markup- developed for the individual humanities scholar.

  21. http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/

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