Unlocking Herculaneum mysteries

From another list.

Enjoy!
James
_______________________
James Spinti
Proofreading and copyediting of ancient Near Eastern and biblical studies monographs
E-mail: jdspinti at gmail dot com
Phone: 260-445-3118
1835 South Park St
Red Wing MN 55066

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> 
> From <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fuknow.uky.edu%2Fresearch%2Fbrent-seales-awarded-prestigious-mellon-grant-poised-solve-2000-year-old-mystery&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C396caa7b0f20480a67b308d6e454781b%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C636947448858190740&amp;sdata=XMtbC6NttecmZCK3eDmEwXjLl7naz8%2B3LFXSTsUDGak%3D&amp;reserved=0>
Safelinks avoidance:
> http://uknow <http://uknow/> [.] uky [.] edu/research/brent-seales-awarded-prestigious-mellon-grant-poised-solve-2000-year-old-mystery
> :
> [Go there for testimonial video]
> =========================
> 
> Brent Seales Awarded Prestigious Mellon Grant, Poised to Solve
> 2,000-Year-Old Mystery
> By Lindsey Piercy
> 
> Watch how the Digital Restoration Initiative inspires student research
> and careers. Video produced by Research Communications.
> 
> LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 21, 2019) — Dubbed "the man who can read the
> unreadable," the story of Brent Seales is one of patience and
> perseverance. With the computer science professor at the helm of the
> Digital Restoration Initiative, the University of Kentucky is poised
> to become a world-class leader in "unwrapping" cultural artifacts.
> 
> For more than two decades, Seales and his dedicated team — of staff
> and student researchers — have doggedly labored to do the impossible.
> With renowned expertise, they've non-invasively recovered fragile
> texts, such as Homer's "Iliad" and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
> 
> Yet, there is one mystery the team still longs to solve — revealing
> the elusive texts within the carbonized Herculaneum scrolls.
> 
> These papyri are among the most iconic — and inaccessible — of the
> world’s vast collection of damaged manuscripts. Buried and burned in
> the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, the scrolls offer a unique
> window to the ancient world. Unfortunately, they are too fragile to
> unroll.
> 
> Now, after a 10-year lull, Seales has found a way forward.
> 
> Mellon Grant Advances Digital Restoration Initiative
> 
> Thanks, in large part, to a $2 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon
> Foundation, Seales finally has the materials access, funding support
> and technical approach needed to solve the 2,000-year-old mystery.
> 
> The prestigious Mellon grant will provide the resources the team needs
> to virtually unwrap and digitally restore the scrolls. It will also
> support the electronic compilation and dissemination of the entire
> Herculaneum collection, which is currently spread across four
> different institutions: the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, the
> British Library, the Institut de France and the Biblioteca Nazoinale
> di Napoli.
> 
> Using cutting-edge technology, Seales is embarking on a daunting task.
> No other researcher has managed to create a comprehensive catalog of
> Herculaneum papyri.
> 
> “No one can cast blame at past researchers, because no other time in
> history has afforded us the technological advances and collaborative
> spirit that exists now,” he explained. “Plus, there is a renewed
> interest in the classics. We have this realization that people may not
> always appreciate the great writings, literature and philosophy of the
> past. All of these issues make now the perfect time."
> 
> From Invisibility to Readability
> 
> This June, Seales will get the opportunity to oversee his first scans
> of Herculaneum scrolls in nearly a decade.
> 
> Several items from Naples, Italy, will be part of “Buried by Vesuvius:
> Treasures from the Villa dei Papiri,” an exhibit about Herculaneum at
> the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, California. Prior to going on display,
> the scrolls will be scanned in an imaging lab at the University of
> California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The scans will be instrumental in the
> final development of a specialized machine learning tool designed to
> reveal Herculaneum text.
> 
> In 2016, Seales' team developed the Volume Cartographer, a
> revolutionary computer program for locating and mapping 2D surfaces
> within a 3D object. The software pipeline is used with micro-CT to
> generate extremely high-resolution images — enabling the ability to
> read a document without ever needing to physically open it. The
> charred scroll from En Gedi was the first complete text to be revealed
> using the software.
> 
> "There have been a couple of cases where I've been the first human
> being to look at some characters that another human wrote down 2,000
> years ago," Stephen Parsons, a staff researcher on the En Gedi
> project, said.
> 
> While the first-of-its kind software has profoundly impacted history
> and literature, not all damaged artifacts are created equal.
> 
> The Herculaneum scrolls pose a unique challenge.
> 
> Because it works with X-rays, the Volume Cartographer software relies
> on the presence of metals in ink to help distinguish the writing from
> the surface on which it sits. But Herculaneum ink is different from
> that used to pen ancient Hebrew and medieval documents. It's made of
> carbon, which is invisible to the human eye in micro-CT images.
> 
> To address this problem, the team has developed a neural network that
> "learns" how patterns in the data look when ink is present, as opposed
> to how patterns appear when no ink is present. A machine learning
> algorithm is trained to detect and recognize the unique data
> signatures. The teams’ ground-breaking work in this area was recently
> featured in a PLOS ONE article.
> 
> "There are similar problems in medicine that people are handling with
> medical CT scans, particularly of brain neurons," Parsons explained.
> "We're kind of right on the cusp, and it's my job now to help us get
> over the hump. That is challenging, of course, but it's pretty
> exciting."
> 
> The next step will be to apply the tool to the UCLA scans in hopes of
> reading the text wrapped inside the scrolls.
> 
> Students Remain Key in Unlocking Sealed Secrets
> 
> Over the years, Seales has been as committed to developing students’
> talents as he has to revealing hidden words. He is currently leading a
> research team of six undergrads in Paris, France. They will spend a
> week surveying and studying Herculaneum materials at the Institut de
> France in preparation for scanning, which will take place next
> September at Diamond Light Source, a high-energy physics facility in
> Oxford, England.
> 
> By engaging in hands-on research, students are able to determine an
> area of interest and jump start their careers. "It's really
> fascinating to me to see these documents that people can't do much
> with,"  Kristina Gessel, a computer science student, said. "I'm still
> considering possibly going for a Ph.D., because this research is
> fascinating to me. What I've seen here is just absolutely awesome."
> 
> In addition to personal and professional benefits, an increased
> commitment to undergraduate research will enhance the prospects for
> U.S. leadership in computer science.
> 
> "It's just amazing that the work we are doing is putting Kentucky on
> the map," Kyra Seevers, a computer science student, added.
> 
> The Promise Moving Forward
> 
> Seales is considered the foremost expert in the digital restoration of
> cultural antiquities. To this day, his quest to uncover ancient
> Western wisdom is ever evolving.
> 
> And though, at times, progress is slow and breakthroughs seem distant
> — Seales always remains steadfastly optimistic. He’s confident that
> it's only a matter of time before the Herculaneum papyri succumb to
> modern technology and, more importantly, to his team’s determination.
> 
> “We plan to keep showing the world what can be done, right here at
> UK," he said. "With the boost from prestigious organizations like the
> NEH and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation covering our immediate
> research needs, our next step is to grow the Digital Restoration
> Initiative into a world-class imaging and restoration lab. Overcoming
> damage incurred during a 2,000-year span is no small challenge. But
> that’s what we do in Kentucky — conquer the seemingly impossible."
> 
> For more about Seales' fascinating work, tune into a recent edition of
> “Behind the Blue,” with UK Public Relations and Strategic
> Communications' Carl Nathe.
> 
> More information about the Digital Restoration Initiative can also be
> found online.