AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship – Decoding the Vindolanda tablets: Generative AI to reassemble, read and restore Roman handwritten texts with The British museum and University of Nottingham (ARTS124)

AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship - Decoding the Vindolanda tablets: Generative AI to reassemble, read and restore Roman handwritten texts with The British museum and University of Nottingham

Area
Classics & Archaeology

Location
UK Other

Closing Date
Monday 02 June 2025

Reference
ARTS124

Start date: 1st October 2025

Application Deadline: 2nd June 2025, 17.00

Interviews will take place online on 26th June 2025.

The British Museum and the University of Nottingham are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2025 under the AHRC’s

The project will test generative AI on a series of tasks aimed at recovering more of the texts of the Vindolanda tablets, including handwritten text recognition, reassembly of fragments, disentangling of palimpsest texts and restoration of missing sections.

This project will be jointly supervised by Professor Alex Mullen (University of Nottingham), Dr Richard Hobbs (British Museum) and Dr Kai Xu (University of Nottingham), and the student will be expected to spend time at both the University of Nottingham and the British Museum, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK.

The studentship can be studied either full or part-time.

We encourage applications from a diverse range of people, from different backgrounds and career stages.

Students should have a Masters Degree in a relevant subject or be able to demonstrate relevant equivalent experience.

The studentship is open to both home and international applicants.

Project Overview

The Vindolanda tablets are an unrivalled documentary source for the Roman army and its activities in Roman Britain. The research will examine if Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support the recovery of the handwritten Latin texts and in turn how this might be applied to aid the decipherment of other similar objects across the British Museum collections.

Although much work has been carried out on the tablets, numerous texts are not deciphered, and the work to recover them is painstaking. A quarter of a century ago, research was undertaken to see if computers might help (Terras 2006 Image to Interpretation: An Intelligent System to Aid Historians in Reading the Vindolanda Texts), but the disproportionate effort required did not encourage development. Now massively increased computing power and the success of Generative AI in various ancient world applications (Sommerschield et al. 2023 ‘Machine Learning for ancient languages: A survey’, Computational Linguistics, 49.3) mean that it is time to test the latest digital tools (e.g. GPT-4o) to undertake four main tasks:

• identify and recognise handwritten characters;
• digitally reassemble fragments;
• restore missing text when objects are fragmentary or text has been lost;

4) decipher palimpsest (overlying) texts.

These tasks would be undertaken using Generative AI pipelines that have already been created for Greek papyri (e.g. Swindall), oracle bones (e.g. Zhang), and cuneiform tablets (e.g. Dahl) and have the potential to bring new texts to light from the extraordinary Vindolanda collection, and to create improved models which could be applied to other BM collections.

Research questions include: * In which ways have digital techniques assisted in the decipherment of the Vindolanda tablets, and similar collections, and what step changes can modern computing power and Generative AI bring?

• How can we best train existing Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) models to recognize and classify characters in relatively small data sets, and which digital images work best?
• Can existing models be deployed to reassemble fragmentary texts and even to restore missing text? What are the risks?
• Can we deploy AI on a new task, i.e. disentangling palimpsest texts?
• What lessons on imaging and best practice in AI can be learned from working with the Vindolanda archive and how can these be applied to other material, e.g. curse tablets/manuscripts?

Research with the British Museum

This research studentship is one allocated to the British Museum by the AHRC. The successful student will be expected to spend time carrying out research and gaining relevant experience with the partner in London as part of the studentship. There will also be the opportunity to work with experts in Roman epigraphy at the Centre of the Study of Ancient Documents, Oxford, and to undertake fieldwork at Vindolanda.

Details of Award

CDP doctoral training grants fund full-time studentships for 4 years or part-time equivalent up to a maximum of 8 years.

The award pays tuition fees up to the value of the full-time home fee. Research Councils UK Indicative Fee Level for 2024/2025 is £5,006. Students with an ‘overseas’ fee status are welcome to apply and, if successful, will receive a University of Nottingham international fee scholarship, which will cover the difference between home and international fee rates. International students will be required to reside in the UK until completion of the PhD.

The award pays an annual stipend for all students, both home and international students. This stipend is tax free, and is the equivalent of an annual salary, enabling the student to pay living costs. The UKRI Minimum Doctoral Stipend for 2024/2025 is £20,780 plus a ‘London-based partner organization allowance’ of £1000 per year. There is also a CDP maintenance payment of £600 per year. A Research Training and Support Grant (RTSG) of £750 per year is available. This can be used to support study visits, conference attendance, training and development opportunities which are necessary for the student’s primary research.

Further details can be found on the .

The successful candidate is eligible to receive an additional travel and related expenses grant during the course of the project courtesy of The British Museum, worth up to £1,500 per year for 4 years.

The successful candidate will be encouraged to participate in professional development events and activities organised for all Collaborative Doctoral Partnership students who are registered with different universities and studying with cultural and heritage organisations across the UK. These activities are organised by a coordination team based at the V&A and are designed to provide CDP researchers with the knowledge, networks and skills to thrive in their future careers.

Eligibility

• This studentship is open to both Home and International applicants.
• To be classed as a home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:
• Be a UK or Irish National (meeting residency requirements), or
• Have settled status, or
• Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
• Have indefinite leave to remain or enter

• Further guidance can be found here based on revisions to Training Grant Terms and Conditions for projects starting in October 2025 -
• International students are eligible to receive the full award for maintenance as are home students. The charge made by the university for tuition fees for international students studying for a doctoral degree in Classics and Archaeology for 2025/26 is £23,000 per year. If successful, an international student will be awarded a University of Nottingham International fee scholarship to cover the difference between home and international fees (the former covered by the CDP award).
• We want to encourage the widest range of potential students to study for a CDP studentship and are committed to welcoming students from different backgrounds to apply. We particularly welcome applications from people of Global Majority backgrounds as they are currently underrepresented at this level in this area.
• Applicants should ideally have or expect to receive a relevant Masters-level qualification in a relevant subject, e.g. Archaeology, Ancient History, Classics, Computer Science, or similar, or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting involving Archaeology, Computer Science, Cultural Heritage, or similar.
• Applicants must be able to demonstrate an interest in technology and cultural heritage and potential and enthusiasm for developing skills more widely in related areas.
• As a collaborative award, students will be expected to spend time at both the University and The British Museum.

NB. All applicants must meet UKRI terms and conditions for funding. See:

Project details and how to apply

For more information and how to apply see .

We ask all applicants to complete a voluntary EDI monitoring form . All responses are anonymous.