CDLI News: Middle Assyrian texts in Berlin

Middle Assyrian texts in Berlin

We invite scholars interested in the Middle Assyrian period to check out the online files of the CDLI at <http://tinyurl.com/7bzpnm2>. Of the 2622 text artifacts entered to our database, 1875 are housed in Berlin's Vorderasiatisches Museum (<http://cdli.ucla.edu/collections/vam/vam_de.html> with <http://tinyurl.com/7dkvd6z>). The most recent Middle Assyrian digitization work by Max Planck Institute for the History of Science postdoctoral researcher Ludek Vacin, in collaboration with VAM Chief Curator Joachim Marzahn and supported by UCLA staff, may be viewed  at <http://tinyurl.com/7fx6o2m> (for all recently posted VAM images see <http://tinyurl.com/84eobuh>), including our first full image of the famous Middle Assyrian Laws (VAT 10,000 = KAV 1) at <http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/P281779>. We need no reminders that this latter image provides insufficient quality for the tablet's convex reverse surface; thus it, and a set of other high-profile tablets, as well as all tablet seal impressions in the Berlin collection, will be among those planned for special high-resolution imaging in a renewed effort to create and disseminate research-quality digital facsimiles of the VAM collection. We take this opportunity to appeal for the submission to us of Middle Assyrian text transliterations for CDLI ATF conversion and posting to their respective CDLI addresses, credited, per our standing policy, to the specialists who created the original files.

Bob Englund

Los Angeles

Achim Marzahn

Berlin