Scholars from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University of Vienna and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem unveil a unique papyrus from the collections held by the Israel Antiquities Authority, offering rare insights into Roman legal proceedings and life in the Roman Near East. In a new publication in the international scholarly journal Tyche, the research team reveals how the Roman imperial state dealt with financial crimes – specifically, tax fraud involving slaves – in the Roman provinces of Iudaea and Arabia. The new papyrus furnishes a strikingly direct view of Roman jurisdiction and legal practice, as well as important new information about a turbulent era shaken by two massive Jewish revolts against Roman rule. 

Peter Turchin, from the Complexity Science Hub, and an international team of collaborators decided to evaluate the historical knowledge of advanced A.I. models such as ChatGPT-4, Llama, and Gemini. According to the results, the A.I. chatbots struggled with historical knowledge. GPT-4-Turbo emerged as the best-performing model but still only achieved a 46% balanced accuracy—barely above the baseline of random guessing. 

Archaeologists have uncovered a rare Tetrarchic boundary stone at the site of Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel. Originally marking land borders under Roman Emperor Diocletian’s tax reforms, the stone provides insight into ancient land ownership, local settlement patterns, and imperial administrative practices. The discovery also introduces two previously unknown place names, expanding our understanding of the region’s historical geography and socio-economic landscape.

The award will support a three-year Archivist-in-Training program, designed to provide undergraduates with comprehensive archival training and hands-on experience while preserving significant historical collections in Northeast Florida.

4,900 years ago, a Neolithic people on the Danish island Bornholm sacrificed hundreds of stones engraved with sun and field motifs. Archaeologists and climate scientists from the University of Copenhagen can now show that these ritual sacrifices coincided with a large volcanic eruption that made the sun disappear throughout Northern Europe.