New archaeology tranche for Emergent Ventures

By Tyler Cowen

New archaeology tranche for Emergent Ventures

Just apply at the normal site. Here is a description of what we are up to and what we are looking for:

* We are giving archaeology-specific EV grants

* Emphasis on projects enabled by tech (AI/CV, lidar, synthetic aperture radar and hyperspectral imagery, open source data, etc)

* Flexible on cost or duration of projects

* All circumstances encouraged (grad student funding a project she's working on, swe wanting to take a few months off to work on something, high school student side project, etc)

* Ideas below are by no means comprehensive or the edges of the search area - just starting points for exploration for people interested in the field that don't have a specific idea in mind yet

Examples of ideas:

* Transcribing, digitizing, and open-sourcing cuneiform tablets and other writing

* OCR and cataloguing old scripts (Maya glyphs, Sanskrit, etc)

* Scanning coastlines along old civilizations for submerged sites

* Improved ground penetrating radar

* Improving AI for translation of old and obscure languages, and mass translation

* Deciphering Linear A. Are existing proposed decipherments such as this one plausible? https://x.com/natfriedman/status/1756414276779253872?s=46

* Reading lumped Maya codices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices#Other_Maya_codices)

* Reading Chinese bamboo slips and silk manuscripts (https://x.com/jordanschnyc/status/1920181694327362007)

* Using AI to check vast amounts of land for sites (good example: https://x.com/byornoste/status/1927434033685827726)

* Lidar scanning forests to find structures beneath the canopy (https://x.com/mehran__jalali/status/1934693744630223228)

* Using SAR/hyperspectral scans for finding sites

For these notes I thank Mehran Jalali, a former EV winner in this area, who also will serve as one of the referees. When you apply, just indicate that your request is for archaeology. Soon this will be a formal category on the application itself, if somehow you are already ready to apply tomorrow a.m., just use the word in your project description.

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