Digital rubbings recover lost inscriptions

Applying image‑enhancement, inversion and vector conversion to archival photos can produce high‑quality digital 'rubbings' that reveal previously unreadable inscriptions. Those recovered readings can resolve long‑running disputes about identity, status, or events when the original artefacts are lost. — This method changes how historians, archaeologists and museums should treat photographic archives: lost or disputed inscriptions may be recoverable without new digs, altering provenance, gender narratives, and claims about the past.