The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) is an international
digital library project aimed at putting text and images of an estimated 500,000 recovered
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...
tablets created from between roughly 3350 BC and the end of the pre-Christian era online.
Directors of the project are
Robert K. Englund
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...
from
University of California, Los Angeles and
Jürgen Renn of the
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Co-principal investigators are Jacob Dahl at Oxford University, Bertrand Lafront at the
Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Nanterre and Émilie Pagé-Perron,
University of Toronto. Preceding leadership comprised co-director
Peter Damerow (1939-2011) from the
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and
Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary leader
Stephen J. Tinney
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...
who was co-principal investigator. In 2004 Englund received the Richard W. Lyman Award from the
National Humanities Center for his work on the initiative.
The project began in 1998
but it was not until 2000 that it obtained funds for three years from the
National Endowment for the Humanities and the
National Science Foundation's
Digital Libraries Initiative
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Technology and computing Hardware
* Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals
** Digital camera, which captures and stores digital ...
.
[ This phase consisted of digitizing and progressively putting online the collections of the ]Vorderasiatisches Museum
The Vorderasiatisches Museum (, ''Near East Museum'') is an archaeological museum in Berlin. It is in the basement of the south wing of the Pergamon Museum and has one of the world's largest collections of Southwest Asian art. 14 halls dist ...
(online in 2001), the Institut Catholique de Paris (online in 2002), the Hermitage Museum and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (online in 2003), and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.[ A second phase from 2004 to 2006 was federally funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, during which time it focused on new educational components and scalable access systems to the data.][
]
References
External links
Official siteNew site - in transition
{{Authority control
Cuneiform
Archaeological databases
American digital libraries