7 Cuneiform Texts - SunoikisisDC/SunoikisisDC-2024-2025 GitHub Wiki

Working with Cuneiform texts

SunoikisisDC Digital Classics: Session 7

Date: Thursday March 6, 2025. 16:00-17:30 GMT.

Convenors: Seraina Nett (Copenhagen University), Émilie Pagé-Perron (University of York), Rune Rattenborg (Lund University), Katharine Shields (King's College London)

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/QnQBRC_mzEQ

Slides: Slides - 7 - Cuneiform Texts (only available from 1 March)

Outline

Cuneiform is a writing system used for over 3000 years to record texts in multiple languages over a wide geographical area. This session gives an overview of digital resources for the study of cuneiform texts, and then introduces the most important databases and platforms relating to cuneiform studies, and the application of digital methods to cuneiform texts. In particular, the session focuses on the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative which has so far catalogued over 350 000 artefacts, including metadata, photographs, and transliterations, and demonstrates various functions of this database. Students have the opportunity to try out the search functions and investigate the metadata.

Required readings

  • Homburg, Timo, Tim Brandes, Eva-Maria Huber, and Michael A. Hedderich. 2023. “From an Analog to a Digital Workflow: An Introductory Approach to Digital Editions in Assyriology.” Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2023 (4). https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdlb/2023-4.
  • Rattenborg, Rune, Gustav Ryberg Smidt, Carolin Johansson, Nils Melin-Kronsell, and Seraina Nett. 2023. "The Archaeological Distribution of the Cuneiform Corpus". Altorientalische Forschungen 50 (2): 178–205. https://doi.org/10.1515/aofo-2023-0014.

Further readings

  • Finkel, Irving L., and Jonathan Taylor. 2015. Cuneiform. London: The British Museum.
  • Huehnergard, John, and Christopher Woods. 2008. "Akkadian and Eblaite". In The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Aksum, edited by Roger D. Woodard, 83–152. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Michalowski, Piotr. 2008. "Sumerian". In The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Aksum, edited by Roger D. Woodard, 6–46. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rattenborg, Rune, Carolin Johannsson, Gustav Ryberg Smidt, Jakob Andersson, and Seraina Nett. 2021. “An Open Access Index for the Geographical Distribution of the Cuneiform Corpus.” Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2021 (1). https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdlj/2021-1.
  • Schmitt, Rüdiger. 2008. "Old Persian". In The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas, edited by Roger D. Woodard, 76–100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Stolper, Matthew W. 2008. "Elamite". In The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Aksum, edited by Roger D. Woodard, 47–82. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Streck, Michael P. 2010. "Großes Fach Altorientalistik: Der Umfang Des Keilschriftlichen Textkorpus". Mitteilungen Der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 142:35–58.
  • Watkins, Calvert. 2008. "Hittite". In The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor, edited by Roger D. Woodard, 6–30. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Wilhelm, Gernot. 2008. "Hurrian". In The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor, edited by Roger D. Woodard, 81–104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Resources

Exercise

Session exercises will introduce you to different workflows for searching and filtering data from the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, downloading search results in various formats, and trying out basic visualisations of the acquired data. Advanced users may also be introduced to more complex datasets for linguistic and social network analysis.

Part 1: Search workflows

  1. Search for artifacts from the collections table
  2. Search for artifacts from the regions table
  3. Search for artifacts from the publications table
  4. Try out other search flows

In each case, use search filters on the left-hand side of the search results interface to narrow down your search results to 1000 or less. Update the number of results per page to 1000 to view all search results.

Part 2: Download catalogue data

Download the catalogue data of a corpus of 1000 entries or less and open the file in your preferred application for working with tabular data

Part 3:

  1. Review your downloaded search results and evaluate the different types of information contained in the table
  2. Visualise the dataset by cross-referencing at least two types of entities
  3. Create a visualisation using either charts, graphs or maps

Part 4 (optional):

If interested, you can explore more complex datasets