Demonstrations
Soft as Silk, Strong as Iron
Crack a rune lock, spell a name by ear, and raise a runestone of your own.
Old worlds. New questions.
Rediscover History
Differently.
Scriptus Arcana combines historical research, experimentation, and modern AI to uncover new perspectives on the past.
From forgotten archives to hidden patterns, we explore, test, and build tools that make history newly visible.
A note on our experiments
Explorations, not publications.
The experiments on this site are not academic papers. They have not been peer-reviewed, submitted to a journal or posted as preprints. They are our own explorations of the space where AI meets history: questions we could not stop wondering about, tested as carefully as we know how, with every method, number and limitation laid out in the open. We run them because they teach us something, and we share them in the hope that they do the same for you.
Explore
Our Work
Historical questions, explored through close reading, practical experiments, and modern tools.
Research & Experiments
Raise a Stone
Can small trained models read Viking runestones better than frontier AI? Follow the evidence across 2,316 stones.
Curiosity, with care
A Thoughtful Approach
We combine human curiosity with rigorous methods, staying close to the evidence while remaining open to new ideas.
Evidence First
We ground our work in verifiable sources, careful analysis, and transparent methods.
Test and Compare
We experiment, validate, and challenge assumptions to uncover clearer insights.
Open to New Perspectives
We use modern tools, including AI, to ask different questions and reveal new connections across time.
From the Workbench
Latest Experiment
Coming soonViking runestonesOld NorseLLMs
Raise a Stone
Can small fine-tuned AI models read Viking runestones better than frontier AI? A two-stage test, with name-swapped stones that no model could have memorized.
2316runestones in the study
11readers compared, from a lookup table to GPT-6.1 Sol
8GB home graphics card that trained the small models
Runes allowed many readings, and Viking carvers had no spelling rules. We trained small open models to turn runes into the words scholars write for them, then tested them on stones none of them had ever seen.
The full write-up, with its results and hands-on figures, is getting its finishing touches. Meanwhile, try the runes yourself in our hands-on museum.
Our Purpose
Bridging Centuries Through Curiosity.
We believe history becomes richer when we combine careful research, real-world experimentation, and modern computational tools. By bringing together human curiosity and machine intelligence, we can rediscover forgotten knowledge, challenge assumptions, and see the past in new and meaningful ways.
Same questions. New horizons. —
Continue Exploring
Discover more research, experiments, and historical insights as we keep uncovering new perspectives together.