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1. Dating ancient manuscripts using radiocarbon and AI-based writing style analysis

Author

Popović, Mladen, Dhali, Maruf A., Schomaker, Lambert, van der Plicht, Johannes, Rasmussen, Kaare Lund, La Nasa, Jacopo, Degano, Ilaria, Colombini, Maria Perla, and Tigchelaar, Eibert

Subjects
Computer Science - Digital Libraries, Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science - Computation and Language, Computer Science - Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Computer Science - Machine Learning
Abstract

Determining the chronology of ancient handwritten manuscripts is essential for reconstructing the evolution of ideas. For the Dead Sea Scrolls, this is particularly important. However, there is an almost complete lack of date-bearing manuscripts evenly distributed across the timeline and written in similar scripts available for palaeographic comparison. Here, we present Enoch, a state-of-the-art AI-based date-prediction model, trained on the basis of new radiocarbon-dated samples of the scrolls. Enoch uses established handwriting-style descriptors and applies Bayesian ridge regression. The challenge of this study is that the number of radiocarbon-dated manuscripts is small, while current machine learning requires an abundance of training data. We show that by using combined angular and allographic writing style feature vectors and applying Bayesian ridge regression, Enoch could predict the radiocarbon-based dates from style, supported by leave-one-out validation, with varied MAEs of 27.9 to 30.7 years relative to the radiocarbon dating. Enoch was then used to estimate the dates of 135 unseen manuscripts, revealing that 79 per cent of the samples were considered 'realistic' upon palaeographic post-hoc evaluation. We present a new chronology of the scrolls. The radiocarbon ranges and Enoch's style-based predictions are often older than the traditionally assumed palaeographic estimates. In the range of 300-50 BCE, Enoch's date prediction provides an improved granularity. The study is in line with current developments in multimodal machine-learning techniques, and the methods can be used for date prediction in other partially-dated manuscript collections. This research shows how Enoch's quantitative, probability-based approach can be a tool for palaeographers and historians, re-dating ancient Jewish key texts and contributing to current debates on Jewish and Christian origins., Comment: 16 pages of main article, 103 pages of supplementary materials, currently under review after having been submitted 20 July 2023

Published
2024

2. Chapter Multilingualism, Multiscripturalism, and Knowledge Transfer in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Graeco-Roman Judaea

Author

Popović, Mladen, Popović, Mladen, Roig Lanzillotta, Lautaro, and Wilde, Clare

Subjects
Cuneiform, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, bic Book Industry Communication::G Reference, information & interdisciplinary subjects::GT Interdisciplinary studies::GTG General studies, bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HR Religion & beliefs, bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HR Religion & beliefs::HRA Religion: general::HRAC Comparative religion, bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HR Religion & beliefs::HRC Christianity::HRCX Christian institutions & organizations::HRCX6 Christian social thought & activity, bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JF Society & culture: general::JFS Social groups::JFSR Religious groups: social & cultural aspects::JFSR1 Jewish studies, bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JF Society & culture: general::JFS Social groups::JFSR Religious groups: social & cultural aspects::JFSR2 Islamic studies
Abstract

How did ancient communities approach the concept of religious knowledge? Was it something to be shared with all, or was it the provenance of certain initiates? This volume of collected essays illustrates a range of approaches to this dilemma, from ancient Babylon, Judaism (Dead Sea scrolls, Book of Jubilees, rabbinic traditions in the Roman Empire), Christianity (Gnosticism, Alexandria, Gospel of John) and Islam (Qur’ān and Ismaili traditions).

Published
2018
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3. Artificial intelligence based writer identification generates new evidence for the unknown scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa)

Author

Popović, Mladen, Dhali, Maruf A., and Schomaker, Lambert

Subjects
Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science - Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Abstract

The Dead Sea Scrolls are tangible evidence of the Bible's ancient scribal culture. Palaeography - the study of ancient handwriting - can provide access to this scribal culture. However, one of the problems of traditional palaeography is to determine writer identity when the writing style is near uniform. This is exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa). To this end, we used pattern recognition and artificial intelligence techniques to innovate the palaeography of the scrolls regarding writer identification and to pioneer the microlevel of individual scribes to open access to the Bible's ancient scribal culture. Although many scholars believe that 1QIsaa was written by one scribe, we report new evidence for a breaking point in the series of columns in this scroll. Without prior assumption of writer identity, based on point clouds of the reduced-dimensionality feature-space, we found that columns from the first and second halves of the manuscript ended up in two distinct zones of such scatter plots, notably for a range of digital palaeography tools, each addressing very different featural aspects of the script samples. In a secondary, independent, analysis, now assuming writer difference and using yet another independent feature method and several different types of statistical testing, a switching point was found in the column series. A clear phase transition is apparent around column 27. Given the statistically significant differences between the two halves, a tertiary, post-hoc analysis was performed. Demonstrating that two main scribes were responsible for the Great Isaiah Scroll, this study sheds new light on the Bible's ancient scribal culture by providing new, tangible evidence that ancient biblical texts were not copied by a single scribe only but that multiple scribes could closely collaborate on one particular manuscript., Comment: 23 pages, 15 pages of supplementary materials, submitted to PLOS ONE on 19 October 2019

Published
2020
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9. Editorial Note

Author

Jokiranta, Jutta and Popović, Mladen

Published
2016

10. Introduction

Author

Popović, Mladen, primary, Lanzillotta, Lautaro Roig, additional, and Wilde, Clare, additional

Published
2018
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12. Editorial Note

Author

Machiela, Daniel and Popović, Mladen

Published
2014

16. Editorial Note

Author

Kratz, Reinhard and Popović, Mladen

Published
2013

25. Critical discourse analysis, rules and persuasion in video games

Author

Popović, Mladen, Stamenković, Dušan, Popović, Mladen, and Stamenković, Dušan

Abstract

Following Fairclough’s (1995) observation that texts in contemporary society are multi-semiotic and Lemke’s (2005) call for extending the scope of critical discourse analysis to new communications media, including websites, blogs, discussion groups, and video games, the present study aims at contributing to the incorporation of video games as multi-semiotic phenomena into discourse studies. The main purpose of our study is to select several aspects of Bogost’s views on video games’ persuasiveness (2007) and combine them with Fairclough’s (1995, 2003) theoretical positions. Our attempt to create links between two different, but seemingly related theoretical frameworks was prompted by Bogost’s (2007: 3) claim that computational processes themselves can be persuasive. In the course of connecting the two, we are paying attention to the concepts of the rule-based discourse, genre-embedded rules, remediation and invisibilization. We hope that such approach might initiate further links between the two frameworks, both of which might benefit from such cooperation

Published
2019

26. Sharing and Hiding Religious Knowledge in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Author

Popović, Mladen, Roig Lanzillotta, Lautaro, and Wilde, Clare

Abstract

In Antiquity, knowledge was cherished as a scarce good, cultivated throughthe close teacher-student relationship, and often preserved in the closedcircle of the initiated. From Assyrian and Babylonian cuneiform texts to aShi‘ite Islamic tradition, this volume explores how and why knowledge wasshared or concealed by diverse communities in various ancient and late antiquecultural contexts. In these essays, a range of scholars from Assyrian studiesto Jewish, Christian, and Islamic studies examine diverse approaches to,and modes of, knowledge transmission and concealment, shedding newlight on both the interconnectedness, as well as the unique aspects, of themonotheistic faiths and their relationship to the ancient civilizations of theFertile Crescent.

Published
2018

27. Multilingualism, Multiscripturalism, and Knowledge Transfer in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Graeco-Roman Judaea

Author

Popovic, Mladen, Popović, Mladen, Roig Lanzillotta, Lautaro, Wilde, Clare, and Jewish, Christian and Islamic Origins

Abstract

Bearing in mind the rich diachronic and multifaceted insights all this data and research have given us, I wish to redirect the focus on the people behind the scrolls again, not in the sense of a single community at a single place, but to understand the collections of manuscripts as a reflection of a textual community, understood as a micro-society in antiquity organized around a common understanding of texts. However one conceives of the configuration of the people behind the scrolls, texts were central in their social activities. The wealth of texts attests that people were occupied with the interpretation of and commentary on scripture, legal issues and community building, but also with science, magic and the writing of history. These people were not isolated but participated in various ways in ancient Mediterranean intellectual networks. Through the writing, copying, and studying of texts, the scrolls’ anonymous scribes and teachers constructed a textual community of a highly intellectual and scholarly character. The textual community behind the Dead Sea Scrolls was not only an ancient Judean phenomenon but also an ancient Mediterranean phenomenon. Taking multilingualism, multiscripturalism, and knowledge transfer as key issues will provide us with an entry into this ancient Mediterranean textual community and also show its entangled history with other intellectual and scholarly communities, both near and far.

Published
2018

30. Artificial intelligence based writer identification generates new evidence for the unknown scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa).

Author

Popović, Mladen, Dhali, Maruf A., and Schomaker, Lambert

Subjects
*ARTIFICIAL intelligence, *SCRIBES, *INSPECTION & review, *PATTERN recognition systems, *SCATTER diagrams
Abstract

The Dead Sea Scrolls are tangible evidence of the Bible's ancient scribal culture. This study takes an innovative approach to palaeography—the study of ancient handwriting—as a new entry point to access this scribal culture. One of the problems of palaeography is to determine writer identity or difference when the writing style is near uniform. This is exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa). To this end, we use pattern recognition and artificial intelligence techniques to innovate the palaeography of the scrolls and to pioneer the microlevel of individual scribes to open access to the Bible's ancient scribal culture. We report new evidence for a breaking point in the series of columns in this scroll. Without prior assumption of writer identity, based on point clouds of the reduced-dimensionality feature-space, we found that columns from the first and second halves of the manuscript ended up in two distinct zones of such scatter plots, notably for a range of digital palaeography tools, each addressing very different featural aspects of the script samples. In a secondary, independent, analysis, now assuming writer difference and using yet another independent feature method and several different types of statistical testing, a switching point was found in the column series. A clear phase transition is apparent in columns 27–29. We also demonstrated a difference in distance variances such that the variance is higher in the second part of the manuscript. Given the statistically significant differences between the two halves, a tertiary, post-hoc analysis was performed using visual inspection of character heatmaps and of the most discriminative Fraglet sets in the script. Demonstrating that two main scribes, each showing different writing patterns, were responsible for the Great Isaiah Scroll, this study sheds new light on the Bible's ancient scribal culture by providing new, tangible evidence that ancient biblical texts were not copied by a single scribe only but that multiple scribes, while carefully mirroring another scribe's writing style, could closely collaborate on one particular manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2021
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31. Artificial intelligence based writer identification generates new evidence for the unknown scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa).

Author

Popović, Mladen, Dhali, Maruf A., and Schomaker, Lambert

Subjects
ARTIFICIAL intelligence, SCRIBES, INSPECTION & review, PATTERN recognition systems, SCATTER diagrams
Abstract

The Dead Sea Scrolls are tangible evidence of the Bible's ancient scribal culture. This study takes an innovative approach to palaeography—the study of ancient handwriting—as a new entry point to access this scribal culture. One of the problems of palaeography is to determine writer identity or difference when the writing style is near uniform. This is exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa). To this end, we use pattern recognition and artificial intelligence techniques to innovate the palaeography of the scrolls and to pioneer the microlevel of individual scribes to open access to the Bible's ancient scribal culture. We report new evidence for a breaking point in the series of columns in this scroll. Without prior assumption of writer identity, based on point clouds of the reduced-dimensionality feature-space, we found that columns from the first and second halves of the manuscript ended up in two distinct zones of such scatter plots, notably for a range of digital palaeography tools, each addressing very different featural aspects of the script samples. In a secondary, independent, analysis, now assuming writer difference and using yet another independent feature method and several different types of statistical testing, a switching point was found in the column series. A clear phase transition is apparent in columns 27–29. We also demonstrated a difference in distance variances such that the variance is higher in the second part of the manuscript. Given the statistically significant differences between the two halves, a tertiary, post-hoc analysis was performed using visual inspection of character heatmaps and of the most discriminative Fraglet sets in the script. Demonstrating that two main scribes, each showing different writing patterns, were responsible for the Great Isaiah Scroll, this study sheds new light on the Bible's ancient scribal culture by providing new, tangible evidence that ancient biblical texts were not copied by a single scribe only but that multiple scribes, while carefully mirroring another scribe's writing style, could closely collaborate on one particular manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2021
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