Digital Hammurabi

Scholars have been working on a project, called "Digital Hammurabi", to "scan" cunieform tablets and publish them digitally. This is necessary because many, many known tablets have never even been read, much less published. To read a tablet, scholars all too often must fly to the city where the tablet is physically located. Then they must laboriously copy and translate the tablet.

Several links are available that provide information on this project. The ones I have found to date are:

1) An article in John Hopkins Magazine, September 2003.

2) An article in the Baltimore Sun.

3) Applied Optics magazine did an article on the science of scanning cunieform tablets in 2007.

4) John Hopkins University has a website devoted to the project. The small pictures on the right are links to other pages with some interesting content, including a short "movie" of how a cunieform "word processor" can be used. Another link provides progress reports on the project that have been published over the course of several years.

This is an interesting project, particuarly to anyone interested in technology as well as ancient history.

Some New Links

I have found two more interesting links for those of us interested in the Ancient Near East. The first I want to share is the website of Dr. Zahi Hawass, who is the head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. The site has article written by Dr. Hawass, photographs and press releases relating to new discoveries in Egypt. One especially interesting item on the site is a film taken inside the Step Pyramid of Djoser. An Egyptian team of workers has cleared the burial chamber and found a tunnel under the royal sarcophagus.

Another site I found has a post describing the Temple of Dedera. There are numerous photos of the temple on the site, including a photo of the famous portrait of Cleopatra and her son by Julius Caesar.

Incidently, I try very hard to find interesting links to sites dealing with Mesopotamia, but I have located very few. A search for sites devoted to Ancient Egypt turns up hundreds of hits. I recognize that there is more interest in Ancient Egypt in general, but the disparity in interest is striking.

A Review of "The Secrets of the Great Pyramid"

How did the ancient Egyptians build the Great Pyramid? This is one of the great mysteries of ancient Egypt. Several theories have been proposed, some of them have even been somewhat rational. But they all have suffered from one or more flaws.

One of the old theories is that the Egyptians built a ramp that snaked around the exterior of the pyramid. Workers would haul multi-ton stones up these ramps so that they could be fit into place. But this theory suffers from two problems: how do you line up the sides of the pyramid when it is buried under a huge ramp and where did the material used to build the ramp go after the pyramid go? Surely the Egyptians did not cart hundreds of tons of materials away in a massive clean up project once the pyramid was completed.

The authors of this book have turned this theory inside out, literally! They believe that the Egyptians did build a ramp and that it is still there. They built it inside the pyramid, not outside it!

This book explains the theory in detail and provides a lot of evidence to support it. One of the most interesting parts of the book is a description of the computer simulations that were created to see if the theory actually works. The simulations were able to explain cracks in the ceiling of the king’s chamber that Egyptologists have not been able to explain. The simulations also provide a time plan for when each part of the pyramid were completed and several of the illustrations show the pyramid at various stages of completion.

This book is concise, well written and explains the theory clearly. It is a very enjoyable read. Is the theory right? I cannot judge that since I am not an engineer. One of the authors is an engineer and that does lend credibility to the ideas presented in this book.

New Discovery in Egypt's Fayum

Archaeologists are reporting the discovery of a necropolis in the Fayum that contains "dozens of burials" that are "as old as 4,000 years". Not much information is available, but I can provide a link to a film interview with Dr. el-Ayedi (who is with the Egyptian Antiquities Service). You may have to hit the refresh button after you click on the link to get past the commercial.

Review of "The Tomb in Ancient Egypt"

I have posted a review of "The Tomb in Ancient Egypt" (by Aidan Dodson and Salima Ikram) on Amazon.

Here is a link to the review.

Four New Temples Found in the Sinai

Egypt is reprting the discovery of four new temples near the Suez Canal. The temples date to the New Kingdom and were part of a town that was probably populated by the Egyptian military in charge of securing Egypt's northeast border.

Here is a link to the article.

I also found a review of Trevor Bryce's book "Life and Society in the Hittite World", which is one of my favorite books on the Hittites. It is up to date (published in 2003) and well written. I would definately recomend the book.

An Old Babylonian Lawsuit

In an earlier post I mentioned that an adopted child in the Old Babylonian Period had the same rights, under most circumstances, as a biological child. A document relating to a lawsuit over a garden confirms this. The translation below is from Huehnergard, John, Key to a Grammar of Akkadian. Harvard Semitic Studies, vol. 46. 1997.

“Mar-Amurrim purchased the orchard of Sin-Magir for silver. Anum-bani brought suit for that orchard according to the royal decree. When they went to the judges, the judges sent them to the gate of Ninmar, and Anum-bani said to the judges of the gate of Ninmar, in the gate of Ninmar, as follows: ‘I am the son of Sin-magir; he adopted me; my sealed document was not broken (i.e., annulled).’ Thus he said to them, and so they confirmed the orchard and estate to Anum-bani. Sin-muballit again laid claim against Anum-bani for the orchard; they went to the judges, and when the judges sent them to the city and the witnesses, the previous witnesses of Mar-Amurrim said, ‘In the gate of Ninmar Anum-bani swore, “I am the son,” and so they confirmed the field and estate to Anum-bani. Sin-Muballit may not bring suit again. He swore by the life of Samas, Marduk and King Hammurapi.”

A man named Sin-Magir sold an orchard to Mar-Amurrim. Sin-magir’s adopted son brought suit claiming that the field should be his since he was Sin-magir’s adopted son and his adoption had not been annulled. Apparently the owner of the field could not sell it since he had an adopted son who could claim it.