Reconsidering the Roman Workshop: examining the processes behind the making of inscribed texts
Collaborators: Charlotte Tupman (Classics and Ancient History / Digital Humanities) and Jacqueline Christmas (Computer Science)
IDSAI Research Fellow: Dmitry Kangin
Description: This pilot project examined on an unprecedented scale the planning processes of ancient Latin inscriptions, one of our major sources of evidence for the Roman world. It developed a machine learning model to locate and extract characters and make a series of measurements to establish the extent to which Roman workshops used specific controlling ‘modules’ in the creation of inscribed texts.
Dr Dmitry Kangin, IDSAI Research Fellow in Computer Science, worked with Charlotte Tupman and Jacqueline Christmas to apply neural networks to analyse a subset of the almost 40,000 images that have been made available by the Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg. As part of his work Dmitry developed a new basis for training Neural ODEs (Ordinary Differential Equations). By combining machine learning and traditional epigraphic methods, the project deepened understanding of Roman drafting and stonecutting processes, and ultimately enhanced the ability to make accurate restorations of fragmentary inscriptions.
