The PLATINUM project claims to be a “Partnership for Learning and Teaching in University Mathematics.” The study began with the goal of analyzing existing Latin papyrus texts dating to the 1st to 8th centuries AD to learn more about Roman Orientalism as an aspect of “multiculturalism in Antiquity and Late Antiquity.” But this study of Latin texts has also helped academics achieve a better understanding of Roman society and education, and how Latin’s influence spread across Europe.

A new research paper was published on CORDIS and funded by the European Research Council. The team of EU archaeologists who conducted the study claimed that recent archaeological discoveries of Latin texts found written on papyrus have grown the available database considerably.