Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 134.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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        Date: 2025-09-16 08:52:04+00:00
        From: Chiara Palladino <chiarapalladino1@gmail.com>
        Subject: CFP: from bits of history to bytes of data


Colleagues on this list may be interested in this Call for Papers: From
bits of history to bytes of data: AI and the study of the ancient Near East

– Nature Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.
Editors: Mark Altaweel, Katrien De Graef, Shai Gordin, So Miyagawa, Chiara
Palladino

Current Deadline: December 13th, 2025.
Submissions will be reviewed and published on a rolling basis.

Information and submission link: *https://www.nature.com/collections/ibaaacccci
<https://www.nature.com/collections/ibaaacccci>*


-----
In the past decades, the study of the ancient and pre-modern world has
experienced enormous change, thanks to the exponential growth of digital
technologies. These resources enable the computational study of ancient
landscapes, materials, and texts, and they reshape our ability to
understand ancient human experiences. The use of digital tools and
computational methods, such as generative AI, is increasing in the
humanities and studies of the human past. We are now witnessing a
qualitative shift in how these technologies are reshaping fundamental
research questions and methodological frameworks.

This collection aims at examining the computational and digital study of
“greater Western Asia” and its epistemological implications. Embracing the
Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East or even “Eurasia”,
this area represents the longest continuously known historical and
archaeological record, as it stands at the crossroads between cultural,
linguistic, and material traditions that span at least three modern
continents and four millennia, with no clear-cut boundaries. At the same
time (and perhaps for this reason), the disciplines that study these areas
share common challenges.

It turns out that ancient data, often thought of as missing, damaged, or
partial, can still be “big data” when enough of it is digitally available,
which opens the doorway to having statistically significant results or
training and fine-tuning deep neural networks. But how to establish
meaningful conclusions from a humanistic perspective based on the results
of such models is still up for debate, and more case-studies are needed in
order to find shared patterns in ancient sources.

This Collection seeks to:

   - Foster SOTA-policy guidelines for digitizing and working with ancient
   data, by encouraging the use of FAIR and CARE principles, and interoperable
   technologies such as linked open data (LOD) across the subfields of Ancient
   and Medieval Near Eastern studies
   - Map the theoretical implications of hermeneutical digital approaches
   for knowledge production in the study of ancient societies
   - Demonstrate through case studies how computational methods can
   problematize, rather than replace, established analytical frameworks
   - Discuss how to effectively communicate the results of such research,
   particularly that done with generative AI, to scholarly and public
   communities

We invite contributions that are related to data covering a large
geographical area from the Iranian highlands to the Eastern Mediterranean
including Egypt and the Sudan, and chronologically from the origins of
writing until 1500 CE. We also particularly encourage contributions from
scholars directly working in these regions.

We invite contributions that consider one or more of the following
methodologies for the digitization or computational study of ancient data,
while answering or providing case studies to dive into epistemological
questions:

   - 3D documentation and visualization of artifacts (e.g. in extended
   reality environments)
   - Ancient language processing and computational linguistics
   - Digital database design and implementation
   - Digital paleography and epigraphy
   - GIS and spatial analysis
   - Paleogeography and Paleoenvironment
   - Population history and DNA
   - Graph theory and network analysis
   - Knowledge organization and linked data systems

The contributions should reveal how digital methodologies are not just
tools but gateways to deeper questions about human organization,
creativity, and cultural transmission in the ancient world. They should
showcase how the true power of digital approaches lies not in the
technology itself, but in its ability to illuminate the richly textured
fabric of ancient human experience.

For any questions, please feel free to get in touch with me or the other
editors.



All the best,
Chiara

Dr. Chiara Palladino
(she/her)
Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities and the Ancient World
Department of Classics and Ancient History
Durham University
chiara.palladino@durham.ac.uk


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