So if I’m understanding this correctly, they did a extremely high resolution CT scan, but it’s not possible to determine the letters from that. However by using other fragments of scroll as a ground truth, you can train a model to pick up on subtle differences in the fibres where there has been ink. That’s very cool!
Yes, the exciting thing is that they used two different methods, they both worked and they each independently confirmed the other’s findings! That’s why they’re so confident in the words they found.
The big hope now is that they’ll be able to keep refining and developing the systems to get more out of the scrolls.
Tyrian Purple (πορφύρα - porphúra) was an expensive dye used to manufacture ‘royal silk’ in the pre-Byzantine era: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_purple. For a long time, the silk was the most expensive man-made item by weight.
The use of the dye also goes back to ancient Phoenicians (also known as ‘land of the purple’).
Wonder if these scrolls have anything to do with royal trade?
Yeah, it seems to refer to the colour but they’re not sure if it’s a noun or an adjective, because they can’t make out the rest of the context with confidence (yet!).
scrollprize.org
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