Vai al contenuto

Lacunae: Automatic Filling of Greek and Latin Epigraphic Gaps

Research Description

The aim of the LACUNAE project is the development of a digital tool that uses artificial intelligence to generate suggestions for the integration of lacunae in Greek and Latin epigraphic documents based on a comparison with selected epigraphic and literary sources. The tool will be implemented according to the principles of XAI (eXplainable Artificial Intelligence), i.e., using a technology that makes the process of AI integration comprehensible to the user.

As far as Latin inscriptions are concerned, the project focuses on public epigraphic documents from the Roman Imperial period; in its Greek branch, it addresses documents from the Archaic-Classical period written in different dialectal and alphabetic varieties. In both cases, the project aims to adapt and apply, with some improvements, the model developed for Greek inscriptions in the Ithaca project, as well as the models Latin BERT for Latin literary texts, and Ancient Greek BERT for Greek literary texts.

Publications

Some general issues concerning the application of AI to Latin inscriptions have already been presented at 19th IRCDL (The Conference on Information and Research science Connecting to Digital and Library science), February 23—24, 2023, Bari, Italy (A. Locaputo, B. Portelli, E. Colombi, G. Serra, Filling the Lacunae in ancient Latin inscriptions, and a chapter within the volume Decoding Cultural Heritage: a critical dissection and taxonomy of human creativity through digital tools (edited by F. Moral-Andrés, E. Merino-Gómez, P. Reviriego, at Springer Nature) will be devoted to their further study. As for Greek inscriptions, a first publication will be devoted to the methodological challenges posed by the preliminary collection of epigraphic and dialectal data.

PROJECT TEAM