A groundbreaking study utilizing an artificial intelligence model named Enoch has provided new insights into the dating of ancient manuscripts, particularly those found in the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea. To teach Enoch, the researchers used a dataset of 62 digital images of ink traces from 24 radiocarbon-dated manuscripts. This intensive training allows the model to learn how to identify and predict the age of undated arbitrarily older documents.
Enoch would now be shown images from 135 previously unseen, undated manuscripts that had not been included in its original training dataset. The model successfully dated an astounding 79% of these manuscripts. This success is a testament to its promise as an impactful tool for emerging scholars doing the important work. Specialist palaeographers were brought in to assess Enoch’s performance. To check its reliability, they tested it by putting it up against 13 other images from the same manuscripts. In nearly 85% of these cases, Enoch’s estimated ages lined up perfectly with the radiocarbon dates. In addition, his estimates tended to give a much narrower range of likely dates compared with standard radiocarbon dating techniques.
The construction of Enoch is a major landmark in the field of manuscript analysis and interpretation. Conventional radiocarbon dating typically involves the destructive sampling of small samples, which is problematic for sensitive historical materials. Enoch provides a non-invasive alternative that can date additional scrolls without the risk of such destructive testing.
According to Mladen Popović, the lead researcher on the study, Enoch’s conclusions have exciting implications. He said that this technology enables researchers to determine the age of new scrolls without having to rely on radiocarbon dating.
“It was previously dated to the late second century BCE, a generation after the author of the Book of Daniel. Now, with our study we move back in time contemporary to that author,” – Mladen Popović.
The manuscripts that Enoch analyzes are a wide range of texts, including legal documents and many different sections of the Hebrew Bible. Scholars feel these texts admittedly could date from as early as the third century BCE to the second century CE. This analysis reveals that a significant number of the manuscripts attributed to Qumran almost certainly did not originate there. Ironically, that site was not fully built out until decades later.
Professor emerita of New Testament studies Joan Taylor had some thoughts on the broader implications of these findings.
“These results mean that most of the manuscripts found in the caves near Qumran would not have been written at the site of Qumran, which was not occupied until later,” – Joan Taylor.
Popović was even more enthusiastic about the transformative potential of this research, describing it as a new frontier for historical investigation.
“There are more than 1,000 Dead Sea scrolls manuscripts so our study is a first but significant step, opening a door unto history with new possibilities for research,” – Mladen Popović.
For researchers, Enoch is a time machine. It allows them to interact with people and happenings from 2000 years in the past.
“It’s like a time machine. So we can shake hands with these people from 2,000 years ago, and we can put them in time much better now,” – Popović.
Popović warned against using only this approach, without giving equal weight to other evidence.
“Overall, this is an important and welcome study, and one which may provide us with a significant new tool in our armoury for dating these texts. Nevertheless, it’s one that we should adopt with caution, and in careful conjunction with other evidence,” – Mladen Popović.