![]() ![]() ![]() These tools are enabling the earliest works of literature to be read in full for the first time since antiquity, giving insights into stories that later appeared in the Bible and shedding light on civilisations at the dawn of history. Now, thanks to developments in artificial intelligence, computers are being trained to read and translate cuneiform, to put fragmented tablets back together to recreate ancient libraries and even predict bits of missing text. This work is part of a revolution, one that is using today’s computing power to bring this 5000-year-old record back to life and unlock new secrets of the world’s first civilisation.Īlthough this system of writing was deciphered 165 years ago (See “ Reading the signs“), the majority of texts that use it have never been translated into modern languages – a fiendishly complicated task that relies on experts such as Finkel. “This is a prayer to the god Marduk,” says Finkel, who is assistant keeper of ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures at the museum, and one of only a handful of people in the world who can read this long-dead script, known as cuneiform, fluently.īehind us, a photographer is meticulously capturing images of this writing, with lights positioned to highlight the indented etchings. Cracked and burnt, it is imprinted with the tiny characters of the world’s oldest written language. But how do you keep records without writing Well, not very practically. ![]() Inside this secret room, Irving Finkel opens a drawer and pulls out a clay tablet. Around 3500 B.C., just before the birth of writing, Sumerians had already been maintaining a civilization for thousands of years, complete with farming, temples, and all kinds of commerce, all of which required record keeping. experts who occupied a higher level on the social ladder than scribes. BEHIND a locked door in the British Museum, London, there is a beautiful library with high, arched ceilings. It is the archaeological material from Sasanian Mesopotamia that allows us to put. ![]()
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