4,000-year-old texts to reach new audiences in digital project

Researchers are transforming access to some of the world’s oldest written records using digital technology and multilingual tools. As part of the project, called Access to Cuneiform Texts (CDLI‑ACT), researchers have developed an Arabic digital interface to allow access to cuneiform texts—written on clay tablets across ancient Mesopotamia over more than three millennia.

The team, including researchers at the University of Al-Qadisiyah, Iraq, the University of York, UK, and Lund University, Sweden, have launched an Arabic version of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), a resource for the study of cuneiform inscriptions worldwide, developed over the course of the last quarter century through the combined efforts of an extensive global research community.

While famous works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh—which tells the story of a legendary king’s quest for immortality following the death of his friend—are widely known, cuneiform texts also include some of the earliest legal codes.

Clay tablets

The Code of Hammurabi, for example, set out rules for society nearly 4,000 years ago and is often associated with the principle of “an eye for an eye.”

Cuneiform texts, first developed in what is now Iraq, represent one of humanity’s earliest writing scripts, predating alphabet-based scripts by more than a millennium. They were written on clay tablets, but can now mostly be seen in museums outside of their original home.

Dr. Émilie Pagé-Perron, from the University of York’s Archaeology Data Service, said, “They are comparable in significance and scale to Egyptian hieroglyphs, and they provide detailed insights into early law, literature, science, and everyday life.”

“Many surviving cuneiform tablets are today held in major Western institutions such as the British Museum and the Louvre Museum, having been removed from the Middle East during periods of excavation often linked to 19th- and early 20th-century imperial activity.”

Globally significant

While these collections have enabled preservation and study, they have also contributed to barriers in access, with much of the material historically cataloged and translated primarily into European languages such as English.

Professor Haider Aqeel Al-Qaragholi, from the University of Al-Qadisiyah in Iraq, said, “Resources like this can keep heritage alive and promote the important role of Middle Eastern countries in shaping the written word. It is particularly important for teaching future generations of students, as they will be the ones to lead further research into what these globally significant artifacts could tell us about the shaping of human society.”

Building on this work, a related project aims in part to address this imbalance by expanding access in Arabic and improving the availability of digital resources for audiences in the region where the texts originated.

Myths and legends

Around 70,000 lines of text are expected to be translated, covering a wide range of material including myths, legal codes, letters, medical texts, and astronomical records. Translations will be produced in multiple formats, ranging from scholarly line-by-line versions to more accessible narratives for general readers.

The data will be archived long-term at the Archaeology Data Service to ensure it remains available for future research.

Rune Rattenborg, from Lund University, Sweden, said, “This new initiative will not only help preserve the earliest known writing systems, but also make them accessible to a new generation worldwide, particularly reconnecting communities with cultural heritage from the region in which it originated.”

Access to Cuneiform Texts (CDLI‑ACT) is an international collaborative project which translated the interface of the CDLI and specialized vocabularies to describe ancient artifacts and texts into Arabic. The translated interface in available at https://cdli.earth/ar; A description of the project can be found at https://cdli.earth/postings/225.