Where is the Cuneiform?

Thursday, May 4, 2023

Where is the Cuneiform?

Where is the Cuneiform? is an attempt to identify, digitally reunite, and align the histories of collections of cuneiform objects in colleges and universities in the United States. The project is composed of four main components:
A symbol map built in Tableau Public identifies where each collection can be found. Each point represents either a collection that is actively maintained or a collection that once belonged to a university or college that has since closed. The current whereabouts of these collections are unknown. If an institution has closed and the current location of their collection is known, that current location is represented on the map. Each point includes information on the name of the institution, where on that institution’s campus the collection can be found (if known), the state and city where the institution is located, and the stable URL for the collection in the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) if digitized.
A network map built in Flourish that displays how these collections are related to each other. Each connection on the map represents a connection based period the object was created, period the object was acquired, provenance, and provenience. Provenance can include anything from a buyer, a seller, an institution involved in the transaction, or a person facilitating the transaction. In most cases, collections are tagged with more than one of the above list of possible connection types.
A dataset in Airtable listing each collection for which I have information with tags based on which people, places, or time periods are represented in those collections. It was with this data that I built the network map in Palladio.
A timeline built in Timeline JS of collection formations and dissolutions, highlighting any known information on cuneiform objects entering or exiting college and university collections.

The components of this project were made possible over years of research with 182 college and university collections websites and 161 publications of the texts in these collections. While expansive, this research is far from comprehensive. For some collections, we have a lot of information. For others, we have almost none.