Epigraphists set to ‘bury’ pen and paper in favour of AutoCad

According to National Geographic News Jean Revez, professor of Egyptian history at the University of Montreal in Canada, is developing a high-tech scanning technique that  uses a modified version of AutoCad to allow epigraphists (archeologists who interpret ancient inscriptions) to complete their work faster and easier in a fully paperless manner.

Currently epigraphists use tracing paper over photographic images of monuments to map out targeted inscriptions. As a result, as any good epigraphist could tell you (such as Peter Brand working at the Temple of Karnak site), an epigraphist’s job can be highly time consuming and laborious.

However thanks to Prof. Revez, epigraphists may find they now have a little more time on their hands. He and his development team’s modified version of AutoCad allows for images of an inscription covered monument to be combined leaving epigraphists with a complete digital model of the monument which they can manipulate and scan to their heart’s content.

The new article also mentions another digitally based archeological tool being developed by Dimitri Laboury of the University of Liège in Belgium so head over there if your curiosity has been sparked.  ::via Notebookism

Related links of interest:
University of Montreal
Wikipedia - Wikipedia's definition of Epigraphy and Epigraphists 
Autodesk - Developers of Autocad