August 18, 2011

Help Decode an Ancient Papyri

When there is a little extra time we try to contribute to Zooniverse who offers several citizen science projects online. Sifting through large amounts of data requires a large base of researchers which is made possible by very unique web software. 


The latest release is a live project called Ancient Lives. In the project, researchers can scan through a 1,000 year old papyri discovered in Oxyrhynchus (Oxyrhynchon polis), the City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish. Zooniverse's goal here to is transcribe literally thousands of ancient papyri including literature, legal proceedings, unseen gospels, and the work of Plato. The software works in a specific way to allow anyone to make matches to the papyri without knowing any Greek.