Interpolation Widget

Trace the morphological path between any two tablet latent vectors

↔︎️ Interactive tool — runs in your browser via Binder

Click Launch Binder below to open the interpolation notebook in a cloud session.

What this tool does

The Interpolation Widget (notebook 13. Traversing the latent space between two images.ipynb) decodes 11 evenly spaced points along a straight line in the 12-dimensional latent space between two tablets (or two manually specified vectors), producing a filmstrip of decoded silhouettes that visualizes the morphological path between them.

This is the computational analogue of a diplomat’s interpolation between two document traditions: the waypoints identify which features changed and which persisted.

The case study in the paper

The paper uses this widget to trace the path between:

Origin: Mean Ur III administrative tablet vector [X2 = −0.995, X7 = −0.612, ...]
Destination: Mean Achaemenid administrative tablet vector [X2 = +0.652, X7 = −2.484, ...]

The filmstrip shows the silhouette transition in 11 steps:

Steps 1–4: gradual widening (X7 decreasing) while outline remains articulated
Steps 5–7: outline regularizes (X2 increasing) while width holds
Steps 8–11: final landscape, compact, rectangular Achaemenid form

Each waypoint is historically coherent: they represent potential Middle Babylonian or Middle Elamite intermediate formats that actually appear in the corpus.

Launch

Launch Binder

Running locally

git clone https://github.com/DigitalPasts/ShapingHistory.git
cd ShapingHistory
pip install -r requirements.txt
jupyter notebook "13. Traversing the latent space between teo images.ipynb"

Suggested explorations

Comparison	Historical question
Ur III admin → Neo-Babylonian	How does the 2nd→1st millennium transition look step by step?
Ur III admin → Neo-Assyrian	How different are the two 1st-millennium portrait traditions?
Old Babylonian → Middle Elamite	What changed in Elamite scribal practice vs. Babylonian?
Neo-Babylonian → Achaemenid	Is the Achaemenid tablet format a continuation or a shift?
Any period → Middle Elamite	Why is Middle Elamite an outlier in the 2nd millennium?

--- title: "Interpolation Widget" subtitle: "Trace the morphological path between any two tablet latent vectors" sidebar: analyses toc: false --- ::: {.interactive-callout} ::: {.callout-title} ↔️ Interactive tool — runs in your browser via Binder ::: Click **Launch Binder** below to open the interpolation notebook in a cloud session. ::: ## What this tool does The **Interpolation Widget** (notebook `13. Traversing the latent space between two images.ipynb`) decodes 11 evenly spaced points along a straight line in the 12-dimensional latent space between two tablets (or two manually specified vectors), producing a filmstrip of decoded silhouettes that visualizes the morphological path between them. This is the computational analogue of a diplomat's interpolation between two document traditions: the waypoints identify which features changed and which persisted. ## The case study in the paper The paper uses this widget to trace the path between: - **Origin**: Mean Ur III administrative tablet vector `[X2 = −0.995, X7 = −0.612, ...]` - **Destination**: Mean Achaemenid administrative tablet vector `[X2 = +0.652, X7 = −2.484, ...]` The filmstrip shows the silhouette transition in 11 steps: 1. Steps 1–4: gradual widening (X7 decreasing) while outline remains articulated 2. Steps 5–7: outline regularizes (X2 increasing) while width holds 3. Steps 8–11: final landscape, compact, rectangular Achaemenid form Each waypoint is historically coherent: they represent potential Middle Babylonian or Middle Elamite intermediate formats that actually appear in the corpus. ## Launch [![Launch Binder](https://mybinder.org/badge_logo.svg){.binder-badge}](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/DigitalPasts/ShapingHistory/HEAD?filepath=13.%20Traversing%20the%20latent%20space%20between%20teo%20images.ipynb) ## Running locally ```bash git clone https://github.com/DigitalPasts/ShapingHistory.git cd ShapingHistory pip install -r requirements.txt jupyter notebook "13. Traversing the latent space between teo images.ipynb" ``` ## Suggested explorations | Comparison | Historical question | |---|---| | Ur III admin → Neo-Babylonian | How does the 2nd→1st millennium transition look step by step? | | Ur III admin → Neo-Assyrian | How different are the two 1st-millennium portrait traditions? | | Old Babylonian → Middle Elamite | What changed in Elamite scribal practice vs. Babylonian? | | Neo-Babylonian → Achaemenid | Is the Achaemenid tablet format a continuation or a shift? | | Any period → Middle Elamite | Why is Middle Elamite an outlier in the 2nd millennium? |