Where to Start?

A Guide to the Guide

A particularly suitable place to start is the section on Research Questions. These questions have emerged from past and ongoing activities of the CSMC and can help you to quickly grasp how your research on written artefacts can benefit from artefact profiling.

You can also enter the guide by exploring the Types of Written Artefacts (e.g. codex, pothi) or the Materials with which they are produced, including writing surfaces, writing substances (e.g. ink, chalk), writing implements, and digital images. These two sections can help you approach artefact profiling directly from the point of view of the object you intend to investigate.

Further entry points to the guide are the sections on scientific and computational methods for the investigation of written artefacts, as well as their equipment. These are described in detail, allowing you to familiarise yourself with the more technical aspects of artefact profiling, in particular the analytical methods of the CSMC Laboratories. Methods and tools developed in the field of pattern analysis in digitised manuscripts are also introduced.

Another section presents Case Studies of profiling activities that show how the possibilities described in this guide can successfully be employed.