Algorithms help unravel the secrets of ancient documentsThe article is not entirely clear, but it sounds as though the algorithm is being used as an epigraphic tool to establish readings; some form of computer enhancement to remove the top layer of writing on a palimpsest and highlight the lower layer.
By HANNAH FISHER (Jerusalem Post)
Computer science and humanities departments have joined forces at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba to decipher historical Hebrew documents, a large number of which have been overwritten with Arabic stories.
The texts include fragments of Jewish prayer books from the Land of Israel.
The unique algorithm being used to determine the wording was developed by BGU computer scientists. The documents are searched electronically, letter by letter, for similarities in handwriting which help determine the date and author of the texts.
The documents being deciphered at BGU are degraded texts from sources such as the Cairo Geniza, the Al-Aksa manuscript library in Jerusalem, and the Al-Azar manuscript library in Cairo.
All together, the base consists of "100,000 medieval Hebrew codices and their fragments [that] represent the book production output of only the last six centuries of the Middle Ages," BGU computer science professor Klara Kedem said this week.
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For other manuscript imaging and conservation projects see here.
