How Machine Learning Can Help Unlock the World of Ancient Japan

Humanity's rich history has left behind an enormous number of historical documents and artifacts. However, virtually none of these documents, containing stories and recorded experiences essential to our cultural heritage, can be understood by non-experts due to language and writing changes over time. For instance, archaeologist have unearthed tens of thousands of clay tablets from ancient Babylon [1], yet only a few hundred specially trained scholars can translate them. The vast majority of these documents have never been read, even if they were uncovered in the 1800s. To give a further illustration of the challenge posed by this scale, a tablet from the Tale of Gilgamesh was collected in an expedition in 1851, but its significance was not brought to light until 1872.