Modern technologies continue to expand the boundaries of historical research, offering incredible opportunities for understanding the past. Such is the case with a revolutionary artificial intelligence that allows scientists to reconstruct mysterious Latin inscriptions from the era of the Roman Empire.
Every year, archaeologists and historians identify around 1,500 Latin texts that hide invaluable information about the ancient Roman civilization. Until now, deciphering these fragments was a serious challenge due to their partial damage and lack of context.
A research team, including specialists from the DeepMind laboratory at Google, developed an innovative tool tentatively named "Aeneas" – in honor of the legendary Trojan hero. The system is a generative neural network capable of recognizing complex connections between different types of data.
The key feature of the technology lies in its ability to restore missing parts of inscriptions by analyzing an extensive database covering the geography of the Roman Empire – a territory of over 5 million square kilometers that existed for two millennia.
According to Yanis Asael, the lead researcher in the project, these inscriptions are extremely valuable because they represent direct testimonies from various social strata. "They are not official history written by the elite, but authentic voices of ordinary people," the expert emphasizes.
Thea Sommershill, an epigraphist from the University of Nottingham, compares the deciphering process to a giant mosaic. "It is impossible to unravel the complete picture with just one element. You must use the available information to connect different pieces," she explains.
Among the amusing discoveries are inscriptions like the one from Pompeii, which warns passersby to be careful with the dog – a vivid example of the preserved everyday details that the new technology helps to preserve and understand.
The project demonstrates how artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool in the humanities, providing new methods for preserving and interpreting cultural heritage.