The Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents
A short walk from the Ashmolean, the Centre for the research of Ancient Documents (CSAD) is making waves through the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies on St Giles’. The interview has been set up for more information about new imaging technology which is being used to reveal previously illegible ancient inscriptions.
I’m here to meet up Dr Jane Massйglia, an Oxford alumna, former teacher that is secondary now research fellow for AshLI (the Ashmolean Latin Inscription Project). Jane actively works to encourage general public engagement with translating these ancient documents. There are many nice samples of this: calling out on Twitter when it comes to interested public to have a stab at translating these ancient inscriptions.
The second person I’m meeting today is Ben Altshuler, ‘our amazing RTI whizzkid.’ RTI, or Reflectance Transformation Imaging, is the software used to decipher inscriptions that are previously impenetrable. Ben Altshuler, 20, has been dealing with CSAD on his gap year prior to starting a Classics degree at Harvard later this year.
What is the remit of CSAD and exactly how achieved it turned out to be?
‘The centre buy essays online started about twenty years ago,’ Jane informs me. ‘It came to be away from several projects that are big original texts just like the Vindolanda tablets (a Roman site in northern England that has yielded the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain). There is suddenly a necessity to accommodate various projects that are different Classics taking a look at primary source material, and an expression that it was better joined up together. It makes sense: epigraphers, the individuals who study these ancient inscriptions – do things in a way that is similar similar resources and technology. Read more
