About Scrypt

The Scrypt software is a tool for computer-assisted decipherment of ancient alphabetic inscriptions, enabling the user to choose a set of possible readings for each cell of the inscription, and to automatically launch dictionary searches for selected regions of the text in the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew dictionary. The name Scrypt is inspired by a fusion of script (as in “ancient script”), script (a special kind of computer program) and crypt (as in “cryptography”).

Basic use

Click on a cell to view (and possibly change) its content, and select a continuous range of cells to launch a dictionary search. Finally, just click on a word among the dictionary results, in order to save it in the first panel on the left.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the  Haute École de Bruxelles - École Supérieure d'Informatique (HEB-ESI). The photograph of the Qeiyafa ostracon is by Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority, used here courtesy of the  Khirbet Qeiyafa Expedition. The photograph of the Ophel inscription is used here courtesy of Eilat Mazar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). The photograph of the Ishbaal inscription is by T. Rogozin, used here courtesy of the  Khirbet Qeiyafa Expedition. The photograph of the Megiddo Area Q inscription is by Michael Cordonsky, and is used here courtesy of the Megiddo expedition (see Sass, B., and Finkelstein, I. 2016. "The swan-song of Proto-Canaanite in the ninth century BCE in light of an alphabetic inscription from Megiddo." Semitica et Classica 9:19–42.  https://doi.org/10.1484/J.SEC.5.112723. The photograph of the Lachish S-3a inscription is by Judith Kreuzer/ÖAI-ÖAW , and is used here courtesy of the Austrian Expedition to Tel Lachish (see Höflmayer, F., H. Misgav, L. Webster, and K. Streit. 2021. “Early Alphabetic Writing in the Ancient Near East: The ‘Missing Link’ from Tel Lachish.” Antiquity 95(381):705–19.  https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.157).

Copyright notice

Copyright © 2014-2023. Eythan Levy and Frédéric Pluquet. All Rights Reserved. Permission to use this software and its documentation for educational, research, and not-for-profit purposes, without fee and without a signed licensing agreement, is hereby granted.