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5000 year-old Cuneiform tablets Go Digital

Posted by Hemos on from the preserve-the-past dept.

purduephotog writes "In an effort to preserve and expose scholars around the world to rapidly plundered historical texts, a joint project between the University of California and the Max Planck Institute have photographed and digitized around 60,000 tablets. An overview is available at ABCNews, while the main site can be found at at UCLA." The ironic part is whether the digitized versions will last/be usable longer then the clay tablets.

7 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Cuneiform is... by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cuneiform is awl write!

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. Just wondering.... by graphicartist82 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... Are they going to be required to have an oracle license for each one of the 5000 yr old dead guys that originally created the tablets?

  3. I don't think this is what MS had in mind... by mblase · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...when they gave the university a grant to develop a new sort of web tablet.

  4. excerpts by dingleberrie · · Score: 3, Funny

    Tablet 12843 begins: "MAKE MONEY FAST"

    Tablet 34935 has:
    >>>> me too!
    >>>
    >>> me too!
    >> Me Too
    >
    > ME TOO

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    I think that four fifths of the tablets are actually "Cuneispam".

  5. Uh oh... by No+Such+Agency · · Score: 4, Funny

    "In other news, the Nam-Shub of Enki has been released onto the internet and is being rapidly disseminated through P2P file sharing. An increasing number of computer users are suffering from a strange neurological affliction the authorities have designated "Snow Crash". The Neurolinguistic Hackers' Association sent out a press release saying 'We told you this was going to happen sooner or later'."

    --
    Freedom: "I won't!"
  6. Wow, interesting to browse by mrroot · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is really interesting to browse. Quite a large undertaking. I did find one strange thing though. I saw this tablet where I could make out the following message: All your base are belong... then... indecipherable.

    Oh well, I guess we shall never know

    --
    I Heart Sorting Networks
  7. DMCA Violation by MarkLR · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do they have the rights to do this? After all it should be up to the people who made these tablets to decide in what format they get to be used. Furthermore this copying and sharing with multiple users is certainly a copyright violation.