Fragment #10
Posted on 05/20/2004 7:54:52 PM PDT by SteveH
Innovative software offers clues to age-old puzzle
BY K. OANH HA
Knight Ridder Newspapers
SAN JOSE, Calif. - (KRT) - It's the world's oldest and largest jigsaw puzzle - an ancient map of Rome in 1,200 fragments of marble. Archaeologists for centuries have tried to painstakingly piece together the sculpture, fragment by fragment. Now, computer wizards at Stanford University say they have created a software program that holds the key to the puzzle and the ancient city.
At the heart of the program are three-dimensional scans of the fragments and algorithms to find possible matches. Already the work has produced several dozen probable and possible matches.
"They've advanced farther and faster in the last months than we have in centuries," said Roman archaeologist Margaret Laird, a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago. "These new matches are going to change a lot of what we know about the city of Rome."
(Excerpt) Read more at montereyherald.com ...
For a picture go to http://formaurbis.stanford.edu
This is interesting.
ping -- interesting computer-archeology intersection
Fragment #10
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Who dropped the thing in the first place?
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