Pasts Imperfect (8.24.23)
Machine Learning and Ancient Philology, Ancient Curry, & Saving World Languages at West Virginia University
This week, Pasts Imperfect is back from summer break to discuss AI, machine learning, and the future study of the ancient world with digital humanist and ancient religions scholar Paul Dilley. Then, traces of the first “ancient curry” are discovered in Vietnam, birds in Old Master paintings, giant sloths, a new map of fifth century CE African bishoprics, the crisis at West Virginia University, and more.
AI, Machine Learning, and the Future of Philology by Paul Dilley
Machine learning (ML) is now in the news more than ever—inside and outside the academy. Even a new TAPA article explores its role in the future of ancient philology. But how, if at all, can it help us understand the ancient world?
The release of ChatGPT 3.0 in late 2022 has added an urgency to this conversation by making personal engagement with artificial intelligence (AI), powered by machine learning, much more immediately accessible in many areas of life. The talking bot, as a form of generative AI, can “answer” any question posed it, from advice on decorating a house or setting up a lab experiment, to the interpretation of literature or the production of a historical narrative. While the initial concern at educational institutions has been the undocumented student use of talk bots to complete assignments, there is a steady sense of both their fallibility and lack of transparency, on the one hand, but on the other, their potential as collaborators in the dynamic process of human learning. To understand the problem and potential of chatbots in particular, and generative AI in general, we need to be familiar with the machine learning on which these tools are based.
Like anything else, machine learning needs data; the more extensive, precise, and accurate, the better. For the study of the ancient world, this data has been steadily built up since the advent of computers in the mid-20th century, but especially in the past thirty years, with the popularization of the Internet. Often, this is in the form of electronic texts, such as the Perseus Digital Library, which is perhaps best known for its core collection of Greek and Latin writings, often with commentary and English translation. It is freely available for study and reuse and the site also includes an image database of ancient art, and has been steadily expanding its content and interface since the late 1980s. In recent years, other Mediterranean languages, such as Coptic and Gāndhārī, have become more available in electronic texts.
These databases have the benefit of making ancient objects and texts more widely available. They also demonstrate the fundamental principle that data, however it is “given” or obtained, is not objective: ancient writings are just as marked by social, cultural, gender, and racial biases in an online collection as they are in other historical formats such as manuscript and print. And as machine-readable text, they are just as vulnerable to reproducing the biases of that data through the algorithms behind machine learning and artificial intelligence. This will certainly be a key issue as LLM chabots are increasingly employed for the research and teaching of the ancient world.
And yet? Machine learning tools can also open up perspectives at previously unreachable scales: whether reconstructing individual letters from damaged papyrus, reassembling fragmentary text, or studying the development of concepts across digital libraries representing millions of words. In subsequent PI issues, I will explore some of these emerging tools and their possibilities for teaching and research.
Public Scholarship and a Global Antiquity
In Science Advances, a new article explores the discovery that ancient spices found on a grinding slab and tools discovered in Oc Eo, in southern Vietnam, point to a long distance spice trade in antiquity. Analysis recovered evidence of “turmeric, ginger, fingerroot, sand ginger, galangal, clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon.” As the authors note, “These spices are indispensable ingredients used in the making of curry in South Asia today.” Weiwei Wang, Khanh Trung Kien Nguyen, Chunguang Zhao, Hsiao-Chun Hung and the rest of the researchers suggest that “South Asian migrants or visitors introduced this culinary tradition into Southeast Asia during the period of early trade contact via the Indian Ocean, commencing about 2000 years ago.”
Whether you got into birding because of pandemic understimulation or because of Wingspan (I’m the latter), all PI avian enthusiasts have to check out this essay on parrots, peacocks, and owls in Old Master paintings, written by Leanne Ogasawara for Aeon. Old Masters’ paintings? Parrots? What could possibly go wrong?
To feel oneself slowing down was also to discover new eyes – to begin to savour the seasons changing, the birdsong, or the peaceful sound of the rustling leaves in the palm trees. To listen to the loud rustle of the grapefruit tree just before a huge, round fruit falls smack onto the ground was like a revelation the first time I heard it. And how did I reach 50 years old and never once hear baby birds chirping to be fed – like crickets! The lockdowns became a time for me to see the world with new eyes. And it continues, wave after wave.
These days I’ve been wearing my weaver’s hat and thinking about natural fibers and textiles in antiquity. A recent research trip introduced me to abacá, a fiber made from the leaves of the banana plant found in the Philippines. Also known as “Manila hemp” by the Spanish, who encountered its longstanding use in the Philippines during colonization, abacá fibers has been twisted and woven into ropes, textiles, and hats for centuries. It’s still used today, and it makes a stiff and luminous cloth. Gorgeous and environmentally friendly, too. Fast-fashioneers, take note!
I am still not over the discovery of ancient giant sloth bone pendants in central Brazil. First of all, imagine being in South America 25,000-27,000 years ago. Then imagine seeing a 600-kilogram giant sloth. Then imagine using its bones to accessorize your outfit. Thais Pansani, a paleontologist at Federal University of São Carlos, says:
Although they had a low metabolism, they were agile animals that walked predominantly on all fours, although they could stand up (mainly to get food from trees). We cannot say if humans saw these animals as threat.
Personally, if I existed in the same space as a giant sloth standing up, I would immediately lose my marbles. But the ancient peoples of central Brazil were braver than I.
Because it’s the sad end of stone fruit season, I’ve been returning to this essay on the cultural and personal history of plums by Anca L. Szilágyi for the Los Angeles Review of Books. It’s not just a color, people—just ask any Eastern European or East Asian person. Oh, if I could eat a plum for the first time again.
Imagine riding your trusty horse with a pocketful of plums or a sapling at your bag. Imagine the thrill of eating a new kind of fruit, the unexpected color and texture of its flesh, the unexpected flavor of its juice.
Over at the Ancient World Mapping Center (AWMC), there is a new late antique map of “Donatist and Catholic Bishoprics” (411 CE) in their helpful Maps for Texts series. See the links below, and, as ancient historian and geographer Richard Talbert notes: “by all means share them with anyone you wish. A reduced-size file of the map is supplied; there’s no loss of content, and greater convenience for users working online. However, anyone who wants the Full Size (half-gigabyte) file – say, for printing out the map – is welcome to request it.” Link to the post on AWMC website or try the direct Dropbox link for the files.
In, “Threads of memory,” published this month in PLOS One, an international team of archaeologists and conservationists lead by Hala Alarashi reconstruct, visualize, and interpret the extensive ornamentation adorning an eight-year old child buried in a cist-grave in the Neolithic village of Ba`ja in Jordan. And over at the Conversation, scholar of ancient technology, Tatiana Bur, discusses, “What Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny gets right (and very wrong) about the historical Antikythera Mechanism.”
The latest issue of Anthropology News is devoted to magic, ranging from “Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome,” written by Jessica Lamont, to the “The Magic of Conversational Automata.” Come for the curse tablets and stay for ChatGPT. And for those interested in more on the role of magic in daily life in the ancient world, Lamont’s book, In Blood and Ashes: Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in Ancient Greece, has just been published by Oxford University Press.
Although we will be discussing it more in our next newsletter, the news out of West Virginia University (WVU)—the public flagship for West Virginia—is dire. To cover the $45 million budget deficit, the university hired a consulting firm and has proposed a plan to do away with world languages (including Latin) and cultures, and lay off scores of faculty. Please consider signing a petition to reverse this decision.
Finally, Dumbarton Oaks Papers has a new website and is now open-access.
New Antiquity Journal Issues (by @YaleClassicsLib)
Pylon: Editions and Studies of Ancient Texts Vol. 3 (2023) #openaccess
Lexis Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023) #openaccess
Altorientalische Forschungen Vol. 50, No.1 (2023)
Rhizomata Vol. 11, No. 1 (2023)
Journal of Indian Philosophy Vol. 51, No. 4 (2023)
BABESCH Vol. 98 (2023)
Vetus Testamentum Vol. 73, No. 3 (2023)
Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft Vol. 76, no. 1 (2023) #openaccess
Antiquity Vol. 97 , No. 394 (2023)
Oriens Vol. 51, No. 1-2 (2023) Musical Sources and Theories from Ancient Greece to the Ottoman Period
Hieroglyphs: Studies in Ancient Hieroglyphic Writing Vol. 1, No.1 (2023) #openacess New Journal
Synthesis Vol. 30 No. 1 (2023) #openaccess Pensar las emociones en la Atenas democrática
Studies in Late Antiquity Vol. 7, No. 3 (2023)
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Vol. 66, No.1 (2023) Middle Platonism in its Literary Context
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy Vol. 33 , No. 2 (2023)
Axon: Iscrizioni storiche greche Vol. 7 , no. 1 (2023) #openaccess
Trends in Classics Vol. 15, No. 1 (2023) Lexicographer and Lexicography Critical Studies and New Perspectives from Antiquity to the Present
Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies Vol. 22, No. 1 (2022)
Apeiron Vol. 56, No. 3 (2023)
Bulletin d’études orientales Vol. 68 (2023) Christianity in Iraq at the Turn of Islam
Heródoto vol. 7 no. 2 (2023) #openaccess Arqueologia Romana
Ancient Philosophy Vol. 43, No. 2 (2023)
Frontière·s No. 8 (2023) #openaccess Aux frontières des espèces
Collectanea Christiana Orientalia Vol. 20 (2023) #openaccess
Online Lectures, CFPs, and Current Museum Exhibitions
Registration is open for the online conference “Varieties of Ineffability in Ancient Philosophy” which happens 18th-21st September 2023. Speakers and respondents will discuss what philosophers said about what can’t be said in ancient Indian, Chinese, and Greco-Roman texts.
Ongoing through November 17th, 2023 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the “Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE–400 CE” explores the early history of Buddhist Art. It includes loans from many regional Indian Museums and several newly discovered sculptures from South India that have not yet been exhibited. An international symposium associated with the exhibit, will take place at the Met, on September 29th and 30th, and you can watch a virtual tour narrated by curator, John Guy, and Donald S. Lopez, the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of Michigan.
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Wish these academic books weren’t so expensive. The Greek curses one looks so good, but it’s $110!