I am invited as keynote speaker at a symposium on “Digital Palaeography and Hebrew/Aramaic Scribal Culture” in Groningen on 6-8 April 2021.

My talk is entitled: “Deciphering Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic Inscriptions in a Digital World: Potential and Limitations.” I will speak Tuesday 6 April at 18:15.

The symposium will be held online. For more information, please visit the University of Groningen’s website.

Here is the program:

Programme
Tuesday, 6 April
13:00 CET
Jouke de Vries (President of the University of Groningen
Welcome

Mladen Popović (University of Groningen)
Introduction

Session 1 – The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Digital Palaeography
Chair: Eibert Tigchelaar

13:15
Mladen Popović (University of Groningen)
Digital Palaeography for Identifying the Unknown Scribes and Dating the Undated Manuscripts from the Dead Sea Scrolls

13:45
Maruf Dhali (University of Groningen)
Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition Techniques in Analyzing the Dead Sea Scrolls

14:15
Gemma Hayes (University of Groningen)
Digital Palaeography and the Scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls

14:45
Drew Longacre (University of Groningen)
Data Mining for Writer Identification: The Test Case of the Dead Sea Psalm Scrolls

15:15 Discussion
15:30-16:15 Break
Session 2 – The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Radiocarbon Dating
Chair: Mladen Popović

16:15
Kaare Rasmussen (University of Southern Denmark)
The 14C Dating in the ERC project “The Hands that Wrote the Bible”: Chemical Aspects and the Cleaning of the Samples

16:45
Hans van der Plicht (University of Groningen)
The 14C Dating in the ERC project “The Hands that Wrote the Bible”: Physical Aspects and the Measurement of the 14C Content

17:15 Discussion
17:30-18:15 Break
Session 3 – Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography
Chair: Drew Longacre

18:15
Michael Langlois (University of Strasbourg)
Deciphering Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic Inscriptions in a Digital World: Potential and Limitations

18:45
James Moore (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Toward a Systematic Description of the Imperial Aramaic Script and its Meaning for Dating and Writer Identification

Project Updates

19:15
Bronson Brown-deVost (University of Göttingen)
Scripta Qumranica Electronica

19:30
Daniel Stoekl ben Ezra (École Pratique des Hautes Études)
eScripta

19:45
Sarah Yardney and Miller Prosser (University of Chicago)
CEDAR/OCHRE

20:00 Conclusion
Wednesday, 7 April
13:00 CET
Welcome

Session 4 – Digital Palaeography
Chair: Maruf Dhali

13:15
Lambert Schomaker (University of Groningen)
TBD

13:45
Peter Stokes (École Pratique des Hautes Études)
When is a Scribe Not a Scribe? Some Reflections on Writer Identification

14:15 Discussion
15:00-15:45 Break
Session 5 – Digital Palaeography
Chair: Lambert Schomaker

15:45
Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin (Tel Aviv University)
Algorithmic Handwriting Analysis of Iron Age Documents and its Implications to the Composition of Biblical Texts

16:15
Hussein Mohammed (Universität Hamburg)
Pattern-Recognition Approaches for Handwriting-Style Analysis

16:45
Eythan Levy (Tel Aviv University) and Frédéric Pluquet (Haute École Louvain en Hainaut [HELHa] – Tournai and Ecole Supérieure d’Informatique [ESI] – Brussels)
New Developments in the Scrypt Software for Old Hebrew Epigraphy

17:15 Discussion
17:30-18:15 Break
Session 6 — Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography
Chair: Gemma Hayes

18:15
Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (University of Oxford)
Hebrew Palaeography Album: A New Online Tool to Study Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts

18:45
Elvira Martín-Contreras (Spanish National Research Council)
Distinguishing Scribal Hands in the Masora of the Medieval Hebrew Bible Manuscripts

Project Updates

19:15
Joe Uziel (Israel Antiquities Authority)
IAA projects

19:30
Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello (University of Basel)
D-Scribes

19:45
James Moore (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Elephantine

20:00 Conclusion
Thursday, 8 April
13:00 CET
Welcome

Session 7 – Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography and Textual Communities
Chair: Mladen Popović

13:15
Eibert Tigchelaar (KU Leuven)
Scribal Culture, Palaeography, and the Scrolls

13:45
Ayhan Aksu (University of Groningen)
Leaving No Scroll Unturned: Opisthographs and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls

14:15
Hanneke van der Schoor (KU Leuven)
Assessing Palaeographic Variation in Informal Manuscripts: The Scribe(s) of the Testament of Qahat and Visions of Amrame

14:45 Discussion
15:00-15:45 Break
Session 8 — Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography
Chair: Ayhan Aksu

15:45
Nadia Vidro (University College London)
Calendars from the Cairo Genizah as a Dating Tool for Palaeography

16:15
Estara J Arrant (University of Cambridge)
From Scholastic to Scribal: A Developmental Analysis of “Unprofessional” Square Hebrew Script from Cairo Genizah Bible Fragments

16:45
Elihu Shannon (Sofer STaM)
Why My Script is Different from My Teacher’s

17:15 Discussion
17:30-18:15 Break
Session 9 — Final Discussion Panels
Chairs: Drew Longacre and Maruf Dhali

18:15 Digital Palaeography Panel Discussion
18:45 Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography and Scribal Culture Panel Discussion
19:15 Final Open Discussion
20:00 Conclusion