Raman Binary Mapping of Iron Age Ostracon in an Unknown Material Composition and High‐Fluorescence Setting—A Proof of Concept

Shaus, Arie; Sober, Barak; Tzang, Omer; Ioffe, Z. M.; Cheshnovsky, Ori; Finkelstein, Israel; Piasetzky, E.

doi:10.1111/arcm.12419

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…During the time when the research was conducted, we had not yet obtained the data from the newly discovered (via multispectral imaging) verso side of Arad Ostracon 16 [ 4 , 5 ]; thus, we have used only its recto in the current examination. For the forensic handwriting analysis, either the ostraca themselves, or their high quality regular or multispectral images [ 4 , 5 , 35 – 37 ] were used; other promising techniques of image acquisition [ 38 , 39 ] were less fruitful. For the algorithmic analysis, a semi-automatic reconstruction of the most prominent characters was utilized [ 40 ]; it can be downloaded at [ 41 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level

Shaus

Gerber²,

Faigenbaum-Golovin

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Arad is a well preserved desert fort on the southern frontier of the biblical kingdom of Judah. Excavation of the site yielded over 100 Hebrew ostraca (ink inscriptions on potsherds) dated to ca. 600 BCE, the eve of Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem. Due to the site's isolation, small size and texts that were written in a short time span, the Arad corpus holds important keys to understanding dissemination of literacy in Judah. Here we present the handwriting analysis of 18 Arad inscriptions, including more than 150 pair-wise assessments of writer's identity. The examination was performed by two new algorithmic handwriting analysis methods and independently by a professional forensic document examiner. To the best of our knowledge, no such large-scale pair-wise assessments of ancient documents by a forensic expert has previously been published. Comparison of forensic examination with algorithmic analysis is also unique. Our study demonstrates substantial agreement between the results of these independent methods of investigation. Remarkably, the forensic examination reveals a high probability of at least 12 writers within the analyzed corpus. This is a major increment over the previously published algorithmic estimations, which revealed 4-7 writers for the same assemblage. The high literacy rate detected within the small Arad stronghold, estimated (using broadly-accepted paleo-demographic coefficients) to have accommodated 20-30 soldiers, demonstrates widespread literacy in the late 7 th century BCE Judahite military and administration apparatuses, with the ability to compose biblical texts during this period a possible by-product.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level

Shaus

Gerber²,

Faigenbaum-Golovin

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

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“…Several factors can hamper an algorithmic analysis of ancient Hebrew ostraca via readily available means. First, the poor state of preservation of the ostraca (Fig 1) cannot be fully remedied by existing image acquisition methods [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Second, the imperfect digital images present a challenge for image segmentation and enhancement methods [25,26].…”

Section: Algorithmic Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Algorithmic handwriting analysis of the Samaria inscriptions illuminates bureaucratic apparatus in biblical Israel

et al. 2020

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Past excavations in Samaria, capital of biblical Israel, yielded a corpus of Hebrew ink on clay inscriptions (ostraca) that documents wine and oil shipments to the palace from surrounding localities. Many questions regarding these early 8 th century BCE texts, in particular the location of their composition, have been debated. Authorship in countryside villages or estates would attest to widespread literacy in a relatively early phase of ancient Israel's history. Here we report an algorithmic investigation of 31 of the inscriptions. Our study establishes that they were most likely written by two scribes who recorded the shipments in Samaria. We achieved our results through a method comprised of image processing and newly developed statistical learning techniques. These outcomes contrast with our previous results, which indicated widespread literacy in the kingdom of Judah a century and half to two centuries later, ca. 600 BCE. Competing interests:The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Fig 2. Map marking places and clans mentioned in the Samaria ostraca; based on [5,10]. In capital red are the names of the Manasseh tribal clans; in black are the names of identifiable localities.

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Computational Handwriting Analysis of Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions – A Survey

Faigenbaum-Golovin

Shaus

Sober

2022

IEEE BITS Inform. Theory Mag.

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Raman Binary Mapping of Iron Age Ostracon in an Unknown Material Composition and High‐Fluorescence Setting—A Proof of Concept

Cited by 3 publications

References 17 publications

Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level

Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level

Algorithmic handwriting analysis of the Samaria inscriptions illuminates bureaucratic apparatus in biblical Israel

Computational Handwriting Analysis of Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions – A Survey

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