Objective
Recent breakthroughs in the digital palaeography of the Dead Sea Scrolls have shed new light on ancient Jewish scribal culture and the making of the Bible by opening the door to writer identification and to the dating of individual manuscripts.
However, our understanding of where the manuscripts were written is still rudimentary. This is crucial knowledge to understand the scrolls’ historical and cultural contexts. In this ERC project, I aim to discover where the manuscripts were produced and written.
The overall aim of the TRACINGSCRIBES ERC project is to shed new light on the scrolls’ historical and cultural contexts by determining the location of the production and writing of parchment and papyrus scrolls in combination with writer identification and dating of individual scribes and scrolls.
We will chemically analyse 250 parchment and papyrus samples from the main assemblage of the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus. TRACINGSCRIBES is the first ever to be able to include papyrus samples from Egypt to compare with Qumran and Judaean Desert papyrus samples.
We will apply artificial intelligence (AI) methods and techniques to the multimodal analytical chemistry data. In this way, TRACINGSCRIBES will, for the first time, deliver a deep learning-based multimodal provenance classification framework and create robust geospatial provenance predictions for the entire corpus, in combination with our advanced digital palaeographic writer identification and dating.
This will enable to locate areas of literacy and text production, creating new possibilities for understanding the spread and dissemination of biblical and many other kinds of texts across ancient Judaea and possibly beyond. I am in a unique position to achieve this thanks to my expertise in the Dead Sea Scrolls and my successful experience in leading a multidisciplinary team of humanities scholars, AI experts, and scientists to work together on solving fundamental issues in the field of manuscript studies.
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-ADG
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9712CP Groningen
Netherlands
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