Algorithmic handwriting analysis of the Samaria inscriptions illuminates bureaucratic apparatus in biblical Israel

Faigenbaum-Golovin, Shira; Shaus, Arie; Sober, Barak; Turkel, Eli; Piasetzky, E.; Finkelstein, Israel

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0227452

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The unprecedented scribal activity during this era (cf. [83]) provides a suitable literacy level and historical context for the composition and dissemination (including appreciation among the population) of several fundamental Judahite biblical texts. We refer mainly to the Book of Deuteronomy and to the first version of the consolidated narrative presented in the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings-the so-called Deuteronomistic History [84,85].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level

Shaus

Gerber²,

Faigenbaum-Golovin

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Arad is a well preserved desert fort on the southern frontier of the biblical kingdom of Judah. Excavation of the site yielded over 100 Hebrew ostraca (ink inscriptions on potsherds) dated to ca. 600 BCE, the eve of Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem. Due to the site's isolation, small size and texts that were written in a short time span, the Arad corpus holds important keys to understanding dissemination of literacy in Judah. Here we present the handwriting analysis of 18 Arad inscriptions, including more than 150 pair-wise assessments of writer's identity. The examination was performed by two new algorithmic handwriting analysis methods and independently by a professional forensic document examiner. To the best of our knowledge, no such large-scale pair-wise assessments of ancient documents by a forensic expert has previously been published. Comparison of forensic examination with algorithmic analysis is also unique. Our study demonstrates substantial agreement between the results of these independent methods of investigation. Remarkably, the forensic examination reveals a high probability of at least 12 writers within the analyzed corpus. This is a major increment over the previously published algorithmic estimations, which revealed 4-7 writers for the same assemblage. The high literacy rate detected within the small Arad stronghold, estimated (using broadly-accepted paleo-demographic coefficients) to have accommodated 20-30 soldiers, demonstrates widespread literacy in the late 7 th century BCE Judahite military and administration apparatuses, with the ability to compose biblical texts during this period a possible by-product.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level

Shaus

Gerber²,

Faigenbaum-Golovin

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While the research into various aspects of automated systems for various tasks related to handwriting and signature analysis is significant, one relevant textbook [ 190 ] and104 articles [ [191] , [192] , [193] , [194] , [195] , [196] , [197] , [198] , [199] , [200] , [201] , [202] , [203] , [204] , [205] , [206] , [207] , [208] , [209] , [210] , [211] , [212] , [213] , [214] , [215] , [216] , [217] , [218] , [219] , [220] , [221] , [222] , [223] , [224] , [225] , [226] , [227] , [228] , [229] , [230] , [231] , [232] , [233] , [234] , [235] , [236] , [237] , [238] , [239] , [240] , [241] , [242] , [243] , [244] , [245] , [246] , [247] , [248] , [249] , [250] , [251] , [252] , ...…”

Section: Forensic Handwriting Examinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpol questioned documents review 2019–2022

Deviterne-Lapeyre

Ibrahim²

2023

Forensic Science International: Synergy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Also, our analysis is fully automatic. We have no need to apply a semi-automatic first step of character reconstruction as in [45][46][47] that aim to imitate the ancient reed pen's movement, although it seems more likely that the stiff-flexible fibrous tip of the sea-rush stem must have been used, like in Egypt [48]. We have developed robust and sufficiently delicate binarization and extraction methods and have succeeded at extracting the ancient ink traces as they appear on digital images [49].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial intelligence based writer identification generates new evidence for the unknown scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa)

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Dead Sea Scrolls are tangible evidence of the Bible’s ancient scribal culture. This study takes an innovative approach to palaeography—the study of ancient handwriting—as a new entry point to access this scribal culture. One of the problems of palaeography is to determine writer identity or difference when the writing style is near uniform. This is exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa). To this end, we use pattern recognition and artificial intelligence techniques to innovate the palaeography of the scrolls and to pioneer the microlevel of individual scribes to open access to the Bible’s ancient scribal culture. We report new evidence for a breaking point in the series of columns in this scroll. Without prior assumption of writer identity, based on point clouds of the reduced-dimensionality feature-space, we found that columns from the first and second halves of the manuscript ended up in two distinct zones of such scatter plots, notably for a range of digital palaeography tools, each addressing very different featural aspects of the script samples. In a secondary, independent, analysis, now assuming writer difference and using yet another independent feature method and several different types of statistical testing, a switching point was found in the column series. A clear phase transition is apparent in columns 27–29. We also demonstrated a difference in distance variances such that the variance is higher in the second part of the manuscript. Given the statistically significant differences between the two halves, a tertiary, post-hoc analysis was performed using visual inspection of character heatmaps and of the most discriminative Fraglet sets in the script. Demonstrating that two main scribes, each showing different writing patterns, were responsible for the Great Isaiah Scroll, this study sheds new light on the Bible’s ancient scribal culture by providing new, tangible evidence that ancient biblical texts were not copied by a single scribe only but that multiple scribes, while carefully mirroring another scribe’s writing style, could closely collaborate on one particular manuscript.

show abstract

Algorithmic handwriting analysis of the Samaria inscriptions illuminates bureaucratic apparatus in biblical Israel

Cited by 10 publications

References 31 publications

Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level

Forensic document examination and algorithmic handwriting analysis of Judahite biblical period inscriptions reveal significant literacy level

Interpol questioned documents review 2019–2022

Artificial intelligence based writer identification generates new evidence for the unknown scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls exemplified by the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About