3D Scans Of Ancient Tablets

clonebarkins writes "The BBC is reporting on a new project to create 3D scans of ancient tablets written in cuneiform. They are using software from Kestrel 3D. Just wait till Project Gutenberg gets a hold of these!"

Comments

Amazing...

[pmz]

First post! Two hours, and even the trolls don't care.

Just wait till Project Gutenberg gets a hold...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Oh yeah. So all the formatting can be completely destroyed and the text can be shoehorned into 80 column format. No thanks, I'll get my texts as bootlegs as the bootleggers on alt.whatever.ebook put a lot more care into the formatting of their texts.

Sumerian texts

[Pall Agamemnides]

Just wait till Project Gutenberg gets a hold of these!"

You can already find some Sumerian texts on the Internet, along with translations:

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

Re:Sumerian texts

[jericho4.0]

From 'the drinking song';

In the troughs made with bur grass, there is sweet beer. I will have the cupbearers, the boys and the brewers stand by. As I spin around the lake of beer, while feeling wonderful, feeling wonderful, while drinking beer, in a blissful mood, while drinking alcohol and feeling exhilarated, with joy in the heart and a contented liver -- my heart is a heart filled with joy! I clothe my contented liver in a garment fit for a queen! The heart of Inana is happy once again; the heart of Inana is happy once again!

I really like the bit about the liver.

not my joke

[L. VeGas]

Cuneiform is awl write.

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Many of the tablets are very delicate. But when you use a laser it doesn't harm the surface at all. The museum is expecting to have the results of the experiment soon. If it proves successful, Dr Finkel said large parts of the museum's collection could be made available online."

Dr. Evil> Or completely obliterated and burned to a shard by a friggin laser beam.

what will this cost?

[malocchio]

Sure, it would be great to have high quality, detailed scans of ancient art available on the internet. Doing so would allow people like myself to get a taste for an ancient civilization without having to go to a museum, for time and money do not permit me to do so.

However, it seems that this technology would be pretty expensive to run, both labor and mechanical costs. What I want to know is, if this technology was used to provide images for people to view on the Internet, would there be a price? Or any other catch?

Personally, I can't see myself or many others paying a subscription fee to look at scans of tablets, unless the fee was very reasonable--no more than 9.99/yr.

Oldest Dupe!

[purduephotog]

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=3D02/05 /17/184237 (tho that doesn't work right now) but the text was, oddly enough, submitted by me ;)

5000 year-old Cuneiform tablets Go Digital
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=3D02/0 5/17/1842 37

[0]purduephotog writes "In an effort to preserve and expose scholars
around the world to [1]rapidly plundered historical texts, a joint
project between the University of California and the Max Planck
Institute have [2]photographed and digitized around 60,000 tablets.
[3]An overview is available at ABCNews, while the main site can be
found at [2]at UCLA." The ironic part is whether the digitized versions
will last/be usable longer then the clay tablets.=20
Links
0. mailto:hirsch@inorbit.com
1. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/05/11/sumer ian/
2. http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/
3. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20020517_716.html

Re:Oldest Dupe!

[Anonymous Coward]

Was the older story about scanning tablets in 3D or simply digitizing 2D images?

Just because both were about old clay tablets doesn't make the new story a dupe.

Taking a joke too seriously

[kalidasa]

Yes, this should drive you nuts: Project Gutenberg probably can't touch them. Technically, any transcription of the texts is copyrighted - the transcription is the result of editorial work, and so is copyright by the editor (textual editing is necessary on anything older than a few generations, and the older, the more necessary). Of course, the ACTUAL text of the tablets is public domain, so if you read and transcribe them yourself, you can put your transcription into the public domain. And I am talking about TRANSCRIPTIONS, as in "cuneiform texts in the original languages and cuneiform writing." Translations, obviously, are copyright by the translators if the original text is in the public domain.

There's a hell of a lot of work involved in transcribing something like this (or translating, for that matter).

Where can I find an Assyriologist?

[Xilman]

Some years ago I was given one of these tablets. It's about 5cm by 3cm by 1cm thick and is covered with cuneiform I can't read.

Anyone know where I can find an Assyriologist to help me read my tablet? Such people seem to be very few and far between.

Egyptologists, OTOH, are relatively easy to find and self-education books on Middle Egyptian are readily available.

Paul

Re:Where can I find an Assyriologist?

[Anonymous Coward]

Start with Workbook of Cuneiform Signs . Then move on to Assyrian Language: Easy Lessons in the Cuneiform Inscriptions. Or choose another book, if you like.

Your tablet is likely a receipt or a tax assesment.

Hmmm

[tsa]

This reminds me of that book by Terry Pratchett (The Fifth Elephant) in which the original sacret Scone of Stone on which the new dwarf kings are crowned turned out to be made of chalk with a thin layer of paint to make it look like stone.

Re:fecal sound

[A55M0NKEY]

Here is an idea: At the next big press conference a Donald Rumsfeld type gives, one where there is alot of suspense and the ratings are high, play a loud 5hz Brown Note. Not only would the whole room shit themselves, but since the press conference is live, the Brown Note would be broadcast to all the teeming millions watching who would also shit themselves.

Oh the humanity!

Unless of course - puts pinky to mouth - I get ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

Scones = Yuck

[A55M0NKEY]

I mean they're so heavy and bready and hard and gross. Geez scones suck.

Re: Oldest Dupe (correct link here)

[Tired_Blood]

Why not try offering the correct link to the dupe you're refering to. I mean, it IS your submission.

Btw, without the info in your post, I would've never found it. Thanks for the details. Hopefully, others aren't modding it further into oblivion.

Ogg?

[Anonymous Coward]

But will they be available as Ogg files? Otherwise, I'm not interested.

A million times more powerful?

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's a bit like a photocopier but a million times more powerful," explained Dr Irving Finkel.

I'd like to see his calculations.

This from the same guy who said:

"You have to imagine that you have a block of cheese. You turn on the machine and the laser cuts out this cheese in three dimensions,"

Cheese?

Re:A million times more powerful?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cheese?

African or European?

Re:Mission Accomplished

[eurostar]

seems like you have never had them toasted
in front of an open fire and then buttered...

mmmmm...

Re: Oldest Dupe (correct link here)

[purduephotog]

Thanks!

I tried searching for it but never got anywhere... a google search turned it up but was inactive.
I can usually find anything on the net... but searching slashdot was downright impossible.

Re: Oldest Dupe (correct link here)

[Tired_Blood]

Yeah, searching /. is sometimes pointless. Searching for "Tired_Blood" here doesn't produce anything about my comments. A search on google does, however.

I basically used the link you provided and compared it to the standard format for /. pages. Then I modified it to comform to the format.

Actually, I just searched "purduephotog" on /. and the one item that comes up is THAT article. I should've tried this first... oh well. I guess I should take back that slam against /. searches...

Not so fast...

[Anonymous Coward]

the copyrights on these tablets hasn't yet expired :)