Towards Universal Access to Cuneiform Heritage

Three-year research programme (TUA-CH, 2026–2029) at the Archaeology Data Service that opens cuneiform heritage to new audiences, Arabic speakers first.

Towards Universal Access to Cuneiform Heritage
  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Funding: Meditor Trust and University of York; £575,266, June 2026 – August 2029
  • Host: Archaeology Data Service, Department of Archaeology, University of York
  • Team: Christie Carr and a second postdoctoral research associate, Lars Willighagen, and eight international advisors

TUA-CH follows on from CDLI-ACT. Only about 3% of visitors to the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative come from the Middle East, where most cuneiform artefacts originate. The programme removes barriers to that heritage for researchers, students and the public, Arabic speakers in particular, through four linked projects:

  1. Sumerian Literature Revived. Updates the digital editions of the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature with current scholarship and new translations.
  2. Cuneiform in Translation: Arabic. Translates more than 70,000 lines of Sumerian and Akkadian text into Arabic and English, in scholarly, student and general-reader versions.
  3. Cuneiform for Everyone. A new CDLI interface for general audiences, in Arabic and English.
  4. Cuneiform Commons. Stronger links between the CDLI, Oracc and the ePSD2 dictionary.

All data will be archived long-term at the Archaeology Data Service.

Project page at the ADS · Programme announcement at the CDLI · University of York news

Image: tablet LB 0963, a copy of the Sumerian hymn Shulgi X, de Liagre Böhl Collection, Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden. Photo via CDLI P345841.