Photos Records in Clay
The tablets document how people lived for millennia in ancient Mesopotamia. They describe codes of law, treatises and economic transactions, from the beginning of writing, around 3350 B.C., until the end of the pre-Christian era. "We have already trained two Iraqi scholars from Badgad's museum. We will ship the equipment as soon as it is possible. This could be a great opportunity to safeguard Iraqi's rich heritage," Negri said. According to Robert Englund, who teaches at the department of Near Eastern Languages and Culture of the University of California, Los Angeles, the data dissemination by the Italian project is very important. "Without open access to their files, the work would make no sense to me. I certainly join the Italian group in underscoring the desperate need to perform a full digital capture of Middle Eastern heritage," Englund told Discovery News. Englund, who is also the director of the Cuneiform Digital Library, a project to make the form and content of cuneiform tablets available online, is however cautious about the practical feasibility of the project at the moment. "As far as I know, the tablets are now held in rooms behind iron doors that have been barred off using a blow torch. I wonder how the expensive equipment will be transported and set up in the museum, and how it will work with only sporadic electricity and with high security concerns," Englund said. Related Links: Discovery News blog: Archaeorama |
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