Finally, an article on the decipherment of cuneiform that does justice to the many figures involved, the timeline, competition, and sheer philological grit. Fascinating and colourful synopsis of how we came to be able to read tablets from ancient Mesopotamia www.smithsonianmag.com/history/myst... - ThreadSky

moudhy.bsky.social • 12 days ago

Finally, an article on the decipherment of cuneiform that does justice to the many figures involved, the timeline, competition, and sheer philological grit.

Fascinating and colourful synopsis of how we came to be able to read tablets from ancient Mesopotamia https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mystery-worlds-oldest-writing-system-remained-unsolved-until-four-scholars-raced-decipher-it-180985954/

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ardentarchivist.bsky.social•12 days ago

A fascinating read! And I really feel for Hincks, labouring away in the face of all the animus and disadvantage. The British Museum does not emerge from the tale covered in glory…!

moudhy.bsky.social•12 days ago

*shocked face* 😅

parkguy.bsky.social•12 days ago

Can AI read these things easily now?

epp.cdli.network•7 days ago

Great question! The step where there is a need to use computer vision (recognising the signs on the photo) is the most difficult! Algorithms are getting better at it. The part where it has to translate from the signs to English is good but not perfect, say, not as good as Google translate.

parkguy.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thanks for the answer.
I understand that well over 1 million tablets have been found.
AI would be a great advantage.

moudhy.bsky.social•12 days ago

I’ll let @epp.cdli.network answer that

toytowns.bsky.social•12 days ago

forbidden shawarma...

cjdrgg.bsky.social•11 days ago

📌

stuartweeks8.bsky.social•12 days ago

A fascinating article, but perhaps stronger on matters that are CE than those BCE. I doubt that any serious scholars date the Genesis story of Noah as early as 1400 BCE, let alone 'most scholars', and didn't Smith translate tablet 11 of the Standard version, which surely isn't earlier than 1400?

moudhy.bsky.social•12 days ago

That’s right. I’m not a biblical scholar, so the only knowledge I can add to this is that there was a Sumerian flood story, as well as an Old Babylonian one (Atrahasis) before Tablet 11 of the Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh, which you’re quite right was written down after 1400 BCE

blindscholar.bsky.social•12 days ago

Yup! The earliest dated mss of Atrahasis come from the 12th regnal year of Ammi-ṣaduqa, or 1635 BCE.I think the Sumerian myth is not much older. There was also an Akkadian 1st person version found at Ugarit from the 13th c. BCE, so it was in the Levant in the Bronze Age at least.

moudhy.bsky.social•12 days ago

Thank you for these way more precise dates! And there’s a first person one???? That’s amazing

blindscholar.bsky.social•11 days ago

Yes! It's super cool. The big differences between OB Atrahasis and Gilg. XI are the change the survivor's nname from Atrahasis to Uta-Napishti and the change from 3rd to 1st person. So it's neat that there's a 1st person version from Ugarit where the narrator names himself Atrahasis.

blindscholar.bsky.social•11 days ago

It's Ms. I in Wasserman's flood texts volume, which is open access:

https://www.peeters-leuven.be/pdf/9789042941748.pdf

anthroplast.bsky.social•12 days ago

Is it not possible that before the ' written ' flood story there was a long and healthy ' oral ' tradition.
Have you seen the actual ' prism ' ? Have you touched it ? ! ! What joy !
Finally, are there any new archaeological discoveries ? Ongoing digs ?

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