Twenty six hundred years ago , a set of Judahite soldiers kept check on their kingdom ’s southern perimeter in the final days before Jerusalem was clear by Nebuchadnezzar . They leave behind numerous dedication — and now , a groundbreaking digital analytic thinking has break how many writer pen them . The enquiry and innovative technology behind it stand to teach us about the origins of the Bible itself .
“ It ’s well understood that the Bible was not composed in real time but was probably write and edited later , ” Arie Shaus , a mathematician at Tel Aviv University told Gizmodo . “ The inquiry is , when on the nose ? ”
Shaus is one of several mathematician and archaeologists seek to broach that question in a extremist manner : by using machine get a line tools to determine how many people were literate in ancient times . Theirfirst major depth psychology , which seem today in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences , suggest that the power to read and pen was widespread throughout the Kingdom of Judah , setting the stage for the compilation of Biblical texts .
Although part of this conclusion stay controversial , the applied science behind the study could revolutionize our intellect of literacy and education in scriptural sentence .
Most scholars concord that the earliest Biblical texts — including the Book of Joshua , Judges , and the two Books of king — took conformation during what ’s have intercourse as the lateFirst Temple Period , before Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian male monarch in 586 BCE . But the circumstances surrounding the writing of these texts , including when they were first penned and by how many author , remain unclear . interrogatively enough , texts that have nothing to do with the Bible may shed illumination on the matter .
For representative , during this time period of time citizenry wrote a wide variety of entropy down on ceramic pottery shard called ostraca . “ These text are very mundane in nature , ” Shaus said , citing military commands and supply orders as some of the more popular matter of discussion .
away from how much wine Judahite soldiers required , however , there ’s another stratum of information we can extract from ostraca : how many hoi polloi knew how to write . That ’s exactly what Shaus and his workfellow did , analyse a group of 16 well - preserved ceramic shard from a outback military fort settle near the southern border of Judah . Most of these ostraca engagement to around 600 BCE , practically the eve of the kingdom ’s pin .
The first stair of this analysis demand the investigator using novel picture processing tools to restore part that had been partly itch away . They then developed machine see algorithms that could compare and contrast the shape of the ancient Hebrew characters so as to identify statistically distinct handwritings . In rule , this is similar to the algorithmic rule tech companies apply for digital touch detection .
“ hand analysis is a bragging area that ’s find out a lot of inquiry in recent years , ” Shaus said . “ Nevertheless , we had to modernize our own tools and this was quite challenging . The medium is very deteriorated and so is the composition . ”
Eventually , the team devised a script recognition instrument that worked beautifully on New Hebrew , and they decided to put it to the test on ancient inscription . All in all , their psychoanalysis bring out at least six unlike generator behind the 16 ostraca . Examining the contents of the text itself , the researchers concluded that these authors spanned the entire military range of mastery . “ The commander down to the lowest urine victor could all communicate in writing , ” Shaus said . “ This was an extremely surprising outcome . ”
It ’s a result that the researchers say points to a “ proliferation of literacy ” throughout Judahite society by 600 BCE , implying that the educational infrastructure to support Bible authorship almost certainly existed .
But not everyone is comfortable with all aspects of this conclusion .
“ This is a highly innovative and important study,”Christopher Rollston , an expert on archeology and Bible study at George Washington University told Gizmodo , note that there ’s ample archaeological grounds part of the Bible were written as early as 800 BCE . But who was really capable to write at that time ?
“ I suppose that literacy was hold to elites , basically scribes , in high spirits military officials , and priest , ” Rollston state , adding that by the late First Temple Period , it ’s possible indication and writing had spread to more of this upper family .
Perhaps the most of import prospect of Shaus ’ work is the introduction of sophisticated figure of speech recognition technology to the work of ancient textbook . The Tel Aviv research mathematical group is keen to share their dick for reconstructing letters and deciphering handwriting with other archeologist . By applying these method more broadly , we might be able to perfect in on when , where , and by whom history ’s most abiding book was first write down .
“ We ’re bringing new grounds to the game , ” Shaus aver . “ Now , we ’ll see what else comes out . ”
anthropologyArchaeologyBibleScience
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