The researchers tested their method on a dataset of twenty fragments, including pieces from several notable scrolls. These included 4Q393, containing a liturgical text known as the “communal confessions” from the Herodian period (1st century BCE–1st century CE); 4Q26, featuring sections of Leviticus from the Hellenistic–Roman period (4th century BCE–2nd century CE); and 4Q270, also called the Damascus Document, a key text of the Qumran sect from the Herodian period.The analysis tool is open source, which is good. The report is still under publication review, but it sounds promising.Kurar-Barakat and Dershowitz found that while the computer could tease out all sorts of data, it had trouble distinguishing between written letters and holes in the parchment, due to similarities between the black ink and the black stone background as seen through the tears.
They overcame this challenge by leveraging another observation: the contours of the ink in the multispectral images were distinct from both the surrounding ink regions and the holes.
Photos of the scrolls are very useful, not infrequently more useful than looking at the actual scroll (because infra-red photography brings out the ink more clearly on darkened leather). But directly viewing the scrolls is sometimes still important. Example discussed here.
Shadowed holes in the leather can sometimes look like ink, so if this new tool can distinguish the two reliably, that alone is progress.
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