Some thoughts on new technologies in archaeology

[E.P. Grondine]

very important news:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/ ... anuscripts

[kbs2244]

This makes you wonder what and if they will ever find what has been lost by the overuse of the "delete" key.

[E.P. Grondine]

The fading of Mixtec green to brown is very annoying.

Compare



with



The second can easily be restored by multi-spectral imaging.

[Minimalist]

Another triumph for Israel Finkelstein and his team.

Continuing to combine modern science with archaeology he has utilized multispectral imaging on a 7th century BC ostracon and found additional lines of text on both the front and the back which were not visible to either the human eye or modern digital photography.

The fact that the piece had been in a museum for a half century suggests that it is time to start looking at similar ink-on-ostraca writings to see what else can be won back from the sands of time.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl ... ne.0178400

[E.P. Grondine]

min, I apologize for not noticing your post.

Here's a recovery:
https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot ... PHqkcAX.97

While developing this technique is going to be mathematically and computationally challenging,
it is a real muscle flexing.

I believe I've already commented here on the use of AI to reconstruct ancient texts.
Every line will eventually feed into those processes.

[kbs2244]

Continuing on a "how did they do it" theme.
From the current news page.
Roman concrete has been examined a lot, but this is the latest.

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/su ... romans-did

[Minimalist]

I wonder if any old volcanic ash will work or if there is something special about the Pozzuoli region? I suppose it could be an economic boom for the area near Naples.... until Vesuvius blows again.

And, yeah, E.P. that is an amazing story. Delving into history for a moment I have always found it strange that Philodemus should have been such a favorite of that family. Lucius Calpurnius Piso was Julius Caesar's father-in-law. He was also the owner of the Villa in question and although he died in 43 BC ( and Philodemus himself died between 35 and 40 BC in Herculaneum) it seems a tad odd that there should be such a single-minded fixation on the works of one Epicurean philosopher. Perhaps Piso was his patron? But even then we should expect the works of other Epicureans to be represented.

Now it is true that the family of the Calpurnii remained very important throughout the first centuries BC and AD. Piso's son, also named Lucius, was consul in 15 BC and the Roman consular list as it has come down to us shows any number of Calpurnian males attaining the the office. What does seem odd is that the family would have maintained their interest in Philodemus for essentially a century after his death. I suppose we will never find out an answer to that one?

[E.P. Grondine]

Portable X-ray Florescence:

https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot ... 8u3MEMU.97

Now if this were applied to the Mixtec hieroglyphic manuscript shown above!

[E.P. Grondine]

https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot ... 0CU77ku.97

While this is not as interesting as a ceramic shard to reconstruction program, it is interesting.
Personally, I'd be more interested in a catalogue of religious and oral cycle themes in Etruscan pottery.

[E.P. Grondine]

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot. ... gueHddG.97

No one thinks about applying this to the palimpsest Mixtec hieroglyphic manuscript.
IN terms of recovering the history of the Valley of Mexico,
this would be of the greatest importance.
It would revolutionize the entire field,
and further aid the decipherment of the existing Mixtec hieroglyphic texts.

[E.P. Grondine]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... paign=1490

The more powerful tools need to be applied to this.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... nding.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25106956

"The Italian authorities are reluctant to permit further excavation, arguing that this would be disruptive for residents of the modern town of Ercolano, built literally on top of Herculaneum.
They also point out that 300-400 of the original rolls remain unread."

Second objection disappearing rapidly, leaving only the first.



http://www.esrf.eu/home/UsersAndScience ... XNP04.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep27227/

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... st_imaging

[E.P. Grondine]

http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/greek-news/ ... video.html

Personally, I never thought that the X-ray images would get sufficient resolution.

I had thought that the only way possible would be to use a polymer solution to attach the papyri to thin metal strips,
and then unroll them.

It now appears that the teams are using complex mathematics to describe the surfaces, and then virtually unroll them,
bu I wonder if AI algorithms to find the letters by adjacent data points might not be more efficient.

But the fundamental problem remains:
"The Italian authorities are reluctant to permit further excavation, arguing that this would be disruptive for residents of the modern town of Ercolano, built literally on top of Herculaneum."
The only way progress might be made is if "someone" buys them out.

[E.P. Grondine]

The Germans have developed an EMR sledge with multiple sensors which can survey acres in a few days.