7/29/2019 LINKING THE INSCRIPTIONS OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA by Terhi Nurmikko

1/1

es range from simple receipts to law codes, from love poems to mathematics, hymns to jokes and everything in between. Cuneiform

housands of polyvalent signs correct readings are highly context-dependent, further complicated by the lack of punctuation and the

r appearance of heterosemanti c signs, such as for togo, for place and ( a grammatical element).

INKING

HE INSCRIPTIONS

F ANCIENTMESOPOTAMIARHI NURMIKKOn1g10@soton.ac.uk / @tmtn

CHAEOLOGICAL COMPUTING RESEARCH GROUP DIGITAL HUMANITIES RESEARCH GROUP WEB SCIENCE DOCTORAL TRAINING CENTRE

ADEMIC SUPERVISORS: DR GRAEME EARL (ACRG), DR NICK GIBBINS (WAIS) AND DR JACOB DAHL (OXFORD)

e c o u r t e s y o f M e l b o u r n e M u s e u m e x h i b i t i o n T h e W o n d e r s o f a n c i e n t M e s o p o t a m i a M a y 4 th O c t o b e r 7 th 2 0 1 2

The Digital Economy Programme is a Research Councils UK cross-council initiative led by EPSRC and contributed to by AHRC, ESRC and MRC.

CUNEIFORM AND THE HETEROGENEOUS TEXT

CORPORA OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

vast textual corpora of ancient Mesopotamia is written almost exclusively

neiform, an ancient syllabic script that was widely used across the ancient

East. Evidence from as far back as fourth millennium BC makes cuneiformof the earliest forms of written expression in the world. It remained in use

everal millennia, and served as the lingua franca of the region. Whilst mutually complementary, there is little in terms of interlinking, and the only the most tentative of initial steps have been taken

thus far in terms of utilising Linked Open Data (LOD). In 2012, the Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (Oracc) joined Pelagios,

which makes geographical locations the first type of Assyriological data to be published as LOD. The ultimate aim of this on-going

project is to implement a system which links outwards to the Pleiades gazetteer and internally to all of the Oracc sub-projects. Whilst

hundreds of archaeological sites are known, some, such as the capital of the Akkadian empire, Akkad, has yet to be located on the

ground, although well-attested in great numbers of ancient written documents.

ONTOLOGICAL REPRESENTATION

OF A SUMERIAN NARRATIVE

Instances of reuse and repetition of narrative passages in various compositions (such as

proverbs quoted in epic literature) and repeated over time (the Sargon Birth Legend,

repeated as the Biblical story of Moses in Exodus) are a well-known feature of the

Mesopotamian literary tradition. Identifying such cross-references is extremely time-

consuming and currently requires extensive specialised knowledge of a number of

different dialects, languages and literary traditions. Recogni sably similar compositions are

known from the Akkadian (Old Babylonian) and Assyrian traditions but with notable

changes in the perspective or moral of the story. The best known is the Poem of the

Righteous Sufferer, which bears noted similarity to the Biblical story ofJob.

riology will benefit from linking knowledge in existing

urces within the domain, as well branching out to

sets beyond the niche to other disciplines. The LOD

munity on the other hand will benefit from the

overies attained from the representation of

rogeneous and incomplete narratives which do not

ribe events from an omniscient perspective.

DIGITAL RESOURCES, ELECTRONIC DICTIONARIES

AND CITIZEN SCIENCEFOR TRANSCRIPTION

Although traditionally a somewhat niche

community of research, projects are

increasingly reaching out to the public.

UrCrowdsource was launched as part of the

Ur Digitization Project, and is a citizen

science project to transcribe the excavation

records from Sir Leonard Woolleys

excavations at Ur in Iraq (1922 1934). All

the materials from these excavations aredivided between the Iraq National Museum,

University of Pennsylvania and the British

Museum, but efforts are being made to

bring them together digitally.

Philological research in Assyriology has been characterized with limited access to resources and the lengthy processes

of data-collection. The last decade has seen the development of a number of online resources, ranging from object

records to dictionaries (electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary), several sign lists, Unicode representations and

publications of composite texts (Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature) .

esentation of the structure of the passage via a narrative

ogy such as OntoMedia may aid in the identification of

ng parallels within the entirety of the Mesopotamian

ry corpora, as well as other written traditions, such as

of ancient Anatolia, Levant and Egypt. The CIDOC CRM

nable mapping of Assyriological material to other cultural

age projects, meaning that archaeological, museological

ot just philological data in accessible, enriched and open.

case study example is a Sumerian fictional or humorous

tive called the Three Ox-Drivers of Adab. It is the story of

friends who fall into dispute over the ownership of a calf.

, although several tablets which carry the inscription are

n, all are broken or incomplete and the punch-line of this

still eludes us.

The question arises: Could citizen science be used for cuneiform materials as well?

1-3There were three friends, citizens of Adab, who fell into a dispute with

each other, and sought justice. They deliberated the matter with many

words, and went before the king.

4-13"Our king! We are ox-drivers. The ox belongs to one man, the cow

belongs to one man, and the waggon belongs to one man. We became

thirsty and had no water. We said to the owner of the ox, "If you were to

fetch some water, then we could drink!". And he said, "What if my ox is

devoured by a lion? I will not leave my ox!". We said to the owner of the

cow, "If you were to fetch some water, then we could drink!". And he said,

"What if my cow went off into the desert? I will not leave my cow!". Wesaid to the owner of the waggon, "If you were to fetch some water, then

we could drink!". And he said, "What if the load were removed from my

waggon? I will not leave my waggon!". "Come on, let's all go! Come on,

and let's return together!"

14-15"First the ox, although tied with a leash (?), mounted the cow, and

then she dropped her young, and the calf started to chew up (?) the

waggon's load. Who does this calf belong to? Who can take the calf?

16-17The king did not give them an answer, but went to visit a cloistered

lady. The king sought advice from the cloistered lady:

18-28"Three young men came before me and said: 'Our king, we are ox-

drivers. The ox belongs to one man, the cow belongs to one man, and the

waggon belongs to one man. We became thirsty and had no water. We

said to the owner of the ox, "If you were to draw some water, then we

could drink!". And he said, "What if my ox is devoured by a lion? I will not

leave my ox!". We said to the owner of the cow, "If you were to draw

some water, then we could drink!". And he said, "What if my cow went off

into the desert? I will not leave my cow!". We said to the owner of thewaggon, "If you were to draw some water, then we could drink!". And he

said, "What if the load were removed from my waggon? I will not leave

my waggon!" he said. "Come on, let's all go! Come on, and let's return

together!" '

29-30" 'First the ox, although tied with a leash (?), mounted the cow, and

then she dropped her young, and the calf started to chew up (?) the

waggon's load. Who does this calf belong to? Who can take the calf?"

Entity

Timeline

Expression

Event

Introduction

Transformation

Being-Trait

Male

Female

Abstract-item

Item