@article{MahnkeArltBaumetal.2020, author = {Mahnke, Heinz-Eberhard and Arlt, Tobias and Baum, Daniel and Hege, Hans-Christian and Herter, Felix and Lindow, Norbert and Manke, Ingo and Siopi, Tzulia and Menei, Eve and Etienne, Marc and Lepper, Verena}, title = {Virtual unfolding of folded papyri}, volume = {41}, journal = {Journal of Cultural Heritage}, publisher = {Elsevier}, doi = {10.1016/j.culher.2019.07.007}, pages = {264 -- 269}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The historical importance of ancient manuscripts is unique since they provide information about the heritage of ancient cultures. Often texts are hidden in rolled or folded documents. Due to recent impro- vements in sensitivity and resolution, spectacular disclosures of rolled hidden texts were possible by X-ray tomography. However, revealing text on folded manuscripts is even more challenging. Manual unfolding is often too risky in view of the fragile condition of fragments, as it can lead to the total loss of the document. X-ray tomography allows for virtual unfolding and enables non-destructive access to hid- den texts. We have recently demonstrated the procedure and tested unfolding algorithms on a mockup sample. Here, we present results on unfolding ancient papyrus packages from the papyrus collection of the Mus{\´e}e du Louvre, among them objects folded along approximately orthogonal folding lines. In one of the packages, the first identification of a word was achieved, the Coptic word for "Lord".}, language = {en} } @misc{MahnkeArltBaumetal.2019, author = {Mahnke, Heinz-Eberhard and Arlt, Tobias and Baum, Daniel and Hege, Hans-Christian and Herter, Felix and Lindow, Norbert and Manke, Ingo and Siopi, Tzulia and Menei, Eve and Etienne, Marc and Lepper, Verena}, title = {Virtual unfolding of folded papyri}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-74338}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The historical importance of ancient manuscripts is unique since they provide information about the heritage of ancient cultures. Often texts are hidden in rolled or folded documents. Due to recent impro- vements in sensitivity and resolution, spectacular disclosures of rolled hidden texts were possible by X-ray tomography. However, revealing text on folded manuscripts is even more challenging. Manual unfolding is often too risky in view of the fragile condition of fragments, as it can lead to the total loss of the document. X-ray tomography allows for virtual unfolding and enables non-destructive access to hid- den texts. We have recently demonstrated the procedure and tested unfolding algorithms on a mockup sample. Here, we present results on unfolding ancient papyrus packages from the papyrus collection of the Mus{\´e}e du Louvre, among them objects folded along approximately orthogonal folding lines. In one of the packages, the first identification of a word was achieved, the Coptic word for "Lord".}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{ArltLindowBaumetal.2016, author = {Arlt, Tobias and Lindow, Norbert and Baum, Daniel and Hilger, Andre and Mahnke, Ingo and Hege, Hans-Christian and Lepper, Verena and Siopi, Tzulia and Mahnke, Heinz.Eberhard}, title = {Virtual Access to Hidden Texts - Study of Ancient Papyri}, booktitle = {Eighth Joint BER II and BESSY II User Meeting, Dec 7-9, 2016, Berlin, Germany}, year = {2016}, abstract = {When physical unfolding/unrolling of papyri is not possible or too dangerous for preserving the precious object, tomographic approaches may be the ap- propriate alternative. Requirements are the resolution and the contrast to distinguish writing and substrate. The steps to be performed are the following: (1) Select the object of interest (archaeological arguments, cultural back- ground of the object, etc.). (2) Find the proper physical procedure, especially with respect to contrast, take the tomographic data, e.g. by absorption x-ray tomography. (3) Apply mathematical unfolding transformations to the tomographic data, in order to obtain a 2d-planar reconstruction of text.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{KlenertSchwoererHajarolasvadietal.2025, author = {Klenert, Nicolas and Schwoerer, Finn and Hajarolasvadi, Noushin and Bournez, Silo{\´e} and Arlt, Tobias and Mahnke, Heinz-Eberhard and Lepper, Verena and Baum, Daniel}, title = {Improving the Identification of Layers in 3D Images of Ancient Papyrus using Artificial Neural Networks}, booktitle = {2025 IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision Workshops (WACVW), Tucson, AZ, USA}, doi = {10.1109/WACVW65960.2025.00143}, pages = {1204 -- 1212}, year = {2025}, abstract = {The process of digitally unfolding ancient documents, such as folded papyrus packages, from 3D image data aims to be a non-invasive means to make previously hidden writing visible without risking to damage the precious documents. One of the main tasks necessary to digitally unfold a document is the geometric reconstruction of the writing substrate, which is a prerequisite for its subsequent unfolding. All current reconstruction methods require the existence of an interspace between different layers of the document to ensure a correct topology. Layers that appear merged together in the 3D image often result in wrong connections between layers and thus also in a wrong topology of the reconstructed geometry, which hinders the successful unfolding. Here, we propose to use a neural network to facilitate the discrimination of the layers. Using papyrus documents as an example of a particularly difficult writing material, we show that this significantly reduces the number of wrong connections and improves the overall identification of the layers. This in turn enables fully automatic digital unfolding of large areas of highly complex papyrus packages. Utilizing explainable AI (XAI) further allows us to explore the results of the applied neural network.}, language = {en} }