Identifying Hands on Ancient Athenian Inscriptions: First Steps Towards a Digital Approach*

Abstract

In this paper, a novel methodology is introduced for the identification of the workmen (hands) that carved ancient inscriptions. This methodology employs specific geometric characteristics of each letter and computes the mean value and variance of these characteristics for each one of the available inscriptions separately. Subsequently, we define original decision thresholds that make use of the statistical distribution of the difference of these values in order to attribute an inscription to a given hand. The inscriptions of the hands under consideration have been properly processed and all information extracted, both visual and statistical, is stored in a suitable database. Application of this methodology to nine Athenian inscriptions, some of which contain very similar letters, offered correct, clear-cut hand identification.

A new approach for ancient inscriptions' writer identification

“…Next, we have automatically segmented each letter image by the methods described in [2], [1], [9]. We have also developed specifically oriented algorithms to extract each letter's contour; these algorithms ensured that each border pixel had precisely two neighboring pixels never forming a right angle.…”

“…The method is based on the automated identification of the cutter of each inscription and gives objective quantitative results. Grouping inscriptions according to their cutter gives to the archaeologists the opportunity to date their content and extract crucial information about it [1]. The authors dealt with ancient Hellenic (Greek) inscriptions but the method is independent of the language on the inscription.…”

Recent discoveries & resources in Athenian epigraphy

“…Images of six inscriptions were analysed in order to extract the specific geometric characteristics of each letter, and a formula produced for the mean values and variance of these letters. Three further inscriptions were then used as a test case against the reference set and the program identified all three as belonging to hands it recognized from the reference set, then confirmed as correct by Tracy (Tracy et al 2007; brief summary in Tracy and Papodysseus 2009). If the technology could be developed one day to perform quickly the same task on large numbers of inscriptions, the results could bring together many separated fragments and answer numerous other questions about date and provenance.…”

Fractal algorithms and RGB image processing in scribal and ink identification on an 1819 secret initiation manuscript to the “Philike Hetaereia”

“…Moreover, writing is often represented by (e.g.) splines and polynomials with Euclidean transformations 11 – 13 . The concept of fractal geometry was developed by Benoît B. Mandelbrot (1924–2010) based on previous pioneering studies by Jules Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor (1845–1918), Lewis Fry Richardson (1881–1953), Niels Fabian Helge von Koch (1870–1924), Waclaw Sierpinski (1882–1969), Karl Menger (1902–1985) and Karl Weierstrass (1815–1897).…”

“…Moreover, writing is often represented by (e.g.) splines and polynomials with Euclidean transformations [11][12][13] . The concept of fractal geometry was developed by Benoît B.…”