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Autori principali: Verwimp, Eli, Smidt, Gustav Ryberg, Hameeuw, Hendrik, De Graef, Katrien
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13959
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author Verwimp, Eli
Smidt, Gustav Ryberg
Hameeuw, Hendrik
De Graef, Katrien
author_facet Verwimp, Eli
Smidt, Gustav Ryberg
Hameeuw, Hendrik
De Graef, Katrien
contents The work in this paper describes the training and evaluation of machine learning (ML) techniques for the classification of cuneiform signs. There is a lot of variability in cuneiform signs, depending on where they come from, for what and by whom they were written, but also how they were digitized. This variability makes it unlikely that an ML model trained on one dataset will perform successfully on another dataset. This contribution studies how such differences impact that performance. Based on our results and insights, we aim to influence future data acquisition standards and provide a solid foundation for future cuneiform sign classification tasks. The ML model has been trained and tested on handwritten Old Babylonian (c. 2000-1600 B.C.E.) documentary texts inscribed on clay tablets originating from three Mesopotamian cities (Nippur, Dūr-Abiešuh and Sippar). The presented and analysed model is ResNet50, which achieves a top-1 score of 87.1% and a top-5 score of 96.5% for signs with at least 20 instances. As these automatic classification results are the first on Old Babylonian texts, there are currently no comparable results.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_13959
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Signs of the Past, Patterns of the Present: On the Automatic Classification of Old Babylonian Cuneiform Signs
Verwimp, Eli
Smidt, Gustav Ryberg
Hameeuw, Hendrik
De Graef, Katrien
Machine Learning
The work in this paper describes the training and evaluation of machine learning (ML) techniques for the classification of cuneiform signs. There is a lot of variability in cuneiform signs, depending on where they come from, for what and by whom they were written, but also how they were digitized. This variability makes it unlikely that an ML model trained on one dataset will perform successfully on another dataset. This contribution studies how such differences impact that performance. Based on our results and insights, we aim to influence future data acquisition standards and provide a solid foundation for future cuneiform sign classification tasks. The ML model has been trained and tested on handwritten Old Babylonian (c. 2000-1600 B.C.E.) documentary texts inscribed on clay tablets originating from three Mesopotamian cities (Nippur, Dūr-Abiešuh and Sippar). The presented and analysed model is ResNet50, which achieves a top-1 score of 87.1% and a top-5 score of 96.5% for signs with at least 20 instances. As these automatic classification results are the first on Old Babylonian texts, there are currently no comparable results.
title Signs of the Past, Patterns of the Present: On the Automatic Classification of Old Babylonian Cuneiform Signs
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13959