Visualisation of Metadata in 2D/3D Digital Cuneiform Artefacts

Project Description

Cuneiform is an ancient writing system that was first used in around 3400 BC (Finkel & Taylor, 2015). Distinguished by its 3D imprinted, wedge-shaped reed marks on clay tablets, cuneiform script is one of the earliest known writing systems in the world and documents millennia of human civilisations. This highly modular script was widely used in the ancient Near East and today gives us insights into the cultural development of the Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian Empires.
With some prototypical iterations and evolutionary development from pictorial to abstracted signs and numbers, cuneiform has approximately 900 characters overall. These individual characters can be used to form the syllables within a word or act as a symbol to represent a whole word.

The proposed research project results from the particular interest within the topic applies to the epistemic issues of 2D/3D data translation and representation. Two such specific issues, which the
proposed creative prototype pilot will examine, are: visualisation of the metadata of collected artefacts and visualisation of AI processes indicating/predicting the content of damaged tablet passages. The progression steps for the 6 month research period will be: consultation and establishing of the problem relevant data
set(s) and algorithm(s) > data preparation and processing > visual 3D<>2D<>3D encoding > prototype visualisations for 2D
and 3D