A new tool, launched this year on the anniversary of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, offers a novel high-tech way to examine ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Fabricius is an open-source program designed by Google Arts & Culture, the Australian Center for Egyptology at Macquarie University, Ubisoft, and Psycle Interactive, in collaboration with Egyptologists from around the world. The digital tool uses Google Cloud’s automated machine learning (AutoML) technology, AutoML Vision, to create a machine-learning model that is able to make sense of what a hieroglyph is. The program includes a variety of features that help users to study and understand Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs – the classical form of the Egyptian language, and the best documented, which replaced Old Egyptian from c.2000 BC.
Available in English and Arabic, Fabricius is an enjoyable introduction to hieroglyphs, but also presents new approaches for professional Egyptologists. The program uses a three-strand approach, offering users the opportunity to learn, play, or work.
The ‘Learn’ tool takes you through the basics of the hieroglyphic script in six steps, each complete with exercises that have you tracing, drawing, identifying, reconstructing, reading, and finally translating hieroglyphs. In addition to introducing some examples of commonly used hieroglyphs, the program explains how hieroglyphic script works and how it has been studied in the past.
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