How can Decision Support System (DSS) software aid the interpretation process involved in the reading of ancient documents? This paper discusses the development of a DSS prototype for the reading of ancient texts. In this context the term ‘ancient documents’ is used to describe mainly Greek and Latin texts and the term ‘scholars’ is used to describe readers of these documents (e.g. papyrologists, epigraphers, palaeographers). However, the results from this research can be applicable to many other texts ranging from Nordic runes to 18th Century love letters.

In order to develop an appropriate tool it is important first to comprehend the interpretation process involved in reading ancient documents. This is not a linear process but rather a recursive process where the scholar moves between different levels of reading, such as ‘understanding the meaning of a character’ or ‘understanding the meaning of a phrase’ (Youtie 1963; Terras 2006). This realization has been paramount to the development of the DSS prototype.