The West Semitic Research and InscriptiFact Projects

The West Semitic Research and InscriptiFact Projects

Over the last 27 years the West Semitic Research Project of the University of Southern California has devoted itself to the production and distribution of high-quality, high-resolution images of ancient manuscripts and inscriptions from the biblical world for scholarly use. In the process of doing so, WSRP, working in collaboration with a number of academic institutions, has developed one of the most extensive archives of images of ancient Near Eastern texts in the world. The image archive includes the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew, Aramaic and Canaanite texts from the biblical period and earlier (including the oldest biblical text ever discovered), Mesopotamian documents and medieval Jewish manuscripts (including the oldest complete Hebrew Bible in the world), as well as numerous other inscriptions and artifacts of archaeological and historical importance. The archive now contains well over 150,000 images with more being added every year. WSRP continues to develop and apply the latest photographic and computer imaging techniques to create the most readable images of these texts found anywhere.

In order to make its images more widely available, WSRP has developed the InscriptiFact project, an on-line database for the distribution of high quality, high resolution images, in cooperation with the libraries of the University of Southern California. InscriptiFact, containing approximately 24,000 images, is currently used by scholars and researchers in 35 countries around the world.

More information about the West Semitic Research Project and the InscriptiFact project at http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp and http://www.inscriptifact.com.