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Archaeology has a new ally: artificial intelligence. Researchers from Google DeepMind, in collaboration with several European universities, have developed 'Aeneas', a tool capable of deciphering and completing Latin inscriptions that until now were enigmatic because of their fragmented state.
Every year, around 1,500 inscriptions appear in territories that were once part of the Roman Empire. Some are military diplomas engraved on bronze, others are dedications on stone or messages painted on walls. All of them, despite the erosion of time, constitute a new window to learn more about everyday life two millennia ago. However, many of them arrived with such a level of erosion that it was very difficult to interpret them.
Now, with 'Aenas', trained with more than 176,000 inscriptions from large databases such as those of Rome, Heidelberg or Clauss-Slaby, it is possible to trace historical and geographical patterns to reconstruct the lost fragments.
'Aenas' can locate texts in around 62 provinces of the Roman Empire with 72% accuracy
According to its creators, the tool is 73% accurate when up to 10 characters are missing and 58% accurate when it is a more indefinite range. It can also locate texts in one of the 62 provinces of the Empire with 72% accuracy. "What makes these inscriptions unique is that they are written by people of the time, from all social classes and on any subject," explained Yannis Assael, one of the researchers.
The first trials have confirmed its usefulness. In tests with 23 specialists, 90% recognised that the suggestions from 'Aeneas' were interesting and valuable for future research. In fact, one of the most striking examples was the famous 'Res Gestae Divi Augusti', where the system proposed two possible related periods, which coincide with the most accurate hypotheses so far. This is a new field where artificial intelligence is getting involved to continue discovering the history of the world, centuries ago.