Quality Evaluation of Facsimiles of Hebrew First Temple Period Inscriptions

2016 15th International Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition (ICFHR)

Turkel

et al. 2016

Self Cite

This article discusses the quality assessment of binary images. The customary, ground truth based methodology, used in the literature is shown to be problematic due to its subjective nature. Several previously suggested alternatives are surveyed and are also found to be inadequate in certain scenarios. A new approach, quantifying the adherence of a binarization to its document image is proposed and tested using six different measures of accuracy. The measures are evaluated experimentally based on datasets from DIBCO and H-DIBCO competitions, with respect to different kinds of binarization degradations.

Section: Quality Measurementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Article [12] deals with GTs of First Temple period Hebrew inscriptions, created by several experts. Their GTs were shown to be of markedly different quality.…”

Section: Quality Measurementioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Ground Truth: Alternative Quality Measures of Document Binarizations

2016 15th International Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition (ICFHR)

Turkel

et al. 2016

Self Cite

“…The evaluation is based on a manual GT creation, and on various GT-versusbinarization measures (e.g., F-measure, PSNR, Distance Reciprocal Distortion, Misclassification Penalty, etc.). Several recent papers [4][5][6] performed a detailed analysis of this approach, stressing its inherent weaknesses such as subjectivity and the inherent inconsistency within the GT creation process. Among the alternative solutions suggested, are skeleton-based GT variants (maintaining some degree of human intervention) [7][8], automatic GT creation (via another binarization procedure) [9], creation of synthetic document images out of existing GT (applicable if noise model exists) [10][11] and goal-directed approach, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating glyph binarizations based on their properties

Faigenbaum

Proceedings of the 2013 ACM Symposium on Document Engineering

et al. 2013

Self Cite

Document binary images, created by different algorithms, are commonly evaluated based on a pre-existing ground truth. Previous research found several pitfalls in this methodology and suggested various approaches addressing the issue. This article proposes an alternative binarization quality evaluation solution for binarized glyphs, circumventing the ground truth. Our method relies on intrinsic properties of binarized glyphs. The features used for quality assessment are stroke width consistency, presence of small connected components (stains), edge noise, and the average edge curvature. Linear and tree-based combinations of these features are also considered. The new methodology is tested and shown to be nearly as sound as human experts' judgments.

“…Several features were adapted, referring to aspects such as the character's overall shape, the angles between strokes, the character's center of gravity, as well as its horizontal and vertical projections. The features in use were SIFT (28), Zernike (29), DCT, K d -tree (30), Image projections (31), L 1 , and CMI (32). Additionally, for each feature, a respective distance was defined.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judah’s military correspondence sheds light on composition of biblical texts

Faigenbaum-Golovin

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

et al. 2016

Self Cite

The relationship between the expansion of literacy in Judah and composition of biblical texts has attracted scholarly attention for over a century. Information on this issue can be deduced from Hebrew inscriptions from the final phase of the first Temple period. We report our investigation of 16 inscriptions from the Judahite desert fortress of Arad, dated ca. 600 BCE-the eve of Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem. The inquiry is based on new methods for image processing and document analysis, as well as machine learning algorithms. These techniques enable identification of the minimal number of authors in a given group of inscriptions. Our algorithmic analysis, complemented by the textual information, reveals a minimum of six authors within the examined inscriptions. The results indicate that in this remote fort literacy had spread throughout the military hierarchy, down to the quartermaster and probably even below that rank. This implies that an educational infrastructure that could support the composition of literary texts in Judah already existed before the destruction of the first Temple. A similar level of literacy in this area is attested again only 400 y later, ca. 200 BCE. B ased on biblical exegesis and historical considerations scholars debate whether the first major phase of compilation of biblical texts in Jerusalem took place before or after the destruction of the city by the Babylonians in 586 BCE (e.g., ref. 1). A related-and also disputed-issue is the level of literacy, that is, the basic ability to communicate in writing, especially in the Hebrew kingdoms of Israel and Judah (2). The best way to answer this question is to look at the material evidence: the corpus of inscriptions that originated from archaeological excavations (e.g., ref.3). Inscriptions citing biblical texts, or related to them, are rarely found (for two Jerusalem amulets possibly dating to this period, echoing the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:23-26, see refs. 4 and 5), probably because papyrus and parchment are not well preserved in the climate of the region. However, ostraca (inscriptions in ink on ceramic sherds) that deal with more mundane issues can also shed light on the volume and quality of writing and on the recognition of the power of the written word in the society.To explore the degree of literacy and stage setting for compilation of literary texts in monarchic Judah, we turned to Hebrew ostraca from the final days of the kingdom, before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and the deportation of its elite to Babylonia. Several corpora of inscriptions exist for this period. We focused on the corpus of over 100 Hebrew ostraca found at the fortress of Arad, located in arid southern Judah, on the border of the kingdom with Edom (see ref. 6 and Fig.