About the Summer School
The first DANES Summer School and Hackathon (DANES ScHack 2026) will take place 6–10 July 2026 at the University of Turin, Italy. Organized by the Department of Historical Studies of the University of Turin jointly with the Digital Ancient Near Eastern Studies (DANES) Network, the summer school brings together students and teachers at the intersection of ancient Near Eastern studies, computational linguistics, computer vision, and network analysis.
Each track combines three hours of morning teaching (10:00–13:00) with three hours of afternoon hackathon-style practical sessions (15:00–18:00). Students are welcome — and encouraged — to bring their own datasets and research questions. No prior programming experience is required.
Accepted participants will receive a certificate of completion. Accommodation and meals are included in the registration fee of €200.
Three Parallel Tracks
Ancient Language Processing
Texts · NLP, computational linguistics, treebanks, ancient language processing
Explore the full pipeline from digital language resources to large language models, working with cuneiform, Akkadian, Latin, and Ancient Greek corpora.
Learn more →Computer Vision for Material Culture
Material Culture · 2D Computer Vision & OCR, 3D Modeling, Photogrammetry
Apply 2D and 3D computational imaging tools to ancient artefacts and spaces — from computer vision and OCR to 3D modelling with GigaMesh and multimodal LLMs.
Learn more →Network Analysis for Ancient Cultures
Networks · Spatial and social network analysis, dynamic network visualization
Model dynamic, interactive aspects of ancient societies — trade, motion, the spread of goods — using open network analysis tools and real datasets.
Learn more →Organisers
DANES ScHack 2026 is organised by Maurizio Viano, Elena Devecchi, and Francesco Giuseppe Barsacchi (University of Turin), with Shai Gordin (DHSS, Open University of Israel) as Academic Coordinator.
