The “electronic Babylonian Library” (eBL) Project

The “electronic Babylonian Library” (eBL) Project

eBL

The electronic Babylonian Library (eBL) Project brings together ancient Near Eastern specialists and data scientists to revolutionize the way in which the literature of Iraq in the first millennium BCE is reconstructed and analyzed. Generations of scholars have striven to explore the written culture of this period, in which literature in cuneiform script flourished to an unprecedented degree, but their efforts have been hampered by two factors: the literature’s fragmentary state of reconstruction and the lack of an electronic corpus of texts on which to perform computer-aided analyses.

The eBL project aims to overcome both challenges. First, a comprehensive electronic corpus has been compiled, and legacy raw material now largely inaccessible has been transcribed into a database of fragments (“Fragmentarium”). Secondly, a pioneering sequence alignment algorithm (“cuneiBLAST”) has been developed to query these corpora. This algorithm will propel the reconstruction of Babylonian literature forward by identifying hundreds of new pieces of text, not only in the course of the project but also in the decades to come.

In order to answer several fundamental and much-debated questions about the nature of the Babylonian poetic expression and the composition and transmission of the texts, three tools are being developed to data-mine the eBL corpus. The first will search for patterns in the spelling variants in the manuscripts, the second will find rhythmical patterns, and the third will sift the corpus for intertextual parallels. The bottom-up study of the corpus by means of these tools will decisively change our conceptions of how Babylonian literature was composed and experienced by ancient audiences.

The eBL project is based at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The project is funded by a Sofja Kovalevskaja Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2018–2024).

About

Signs

Dictionary

Corpus

LiteratureDivinationMedicine

1. 0. Catalogue of Texts and Authors

I. Narrative Poetry

1. 1. Story of the Flood (Atraḫasīs) — 500 vv.
2. 2. Poem of Creation (Enūma eliš) — 950 vv.
3. 3. The Elevation of Babylon — ±300 vv.
4. 4. Poem of Gilgameš — 2400 vv.
5. 5. Erra and Išum — 670 vv.
6. 6. Nergal and Ereškigal — 421 vv.
7. 7. Adapa — 130 vv.
8. 8. Descent of Ištar — 138 vv.
9. 9. Etana — 294 vv.
10. 10. Anzû — 544 vv.
11. 11. The Poor Man of Nippur — 160 vv.
12. 12. Cuthaean Legend of Narām-Sîn — 180 vv.

II. Monologue and dialogue literature

1. 1. Theodicy — 297 vv.
2. 2. Righteous Sufferer (Ludlul bēl nēmeqi) — 600 vv.
3. 3. Counsels of Wisdom — 160 vv.
4. 4. Dialogue of Pessimism — 86 vv.
5. 5. Advice to a Prince — 59 vv.
6. 6. Instructions of Šūpû-amēlu (Šimâ milka) — ±200 vv.
7. 7. Aluzinnu Text — 400 vv.
8. 8. Series of the Poplar — 65 vv.
9. 9. Series of Ox and Horse — 219 vv.
10. 10. Series of the Fox — 300 vv.
11. 11. Series of the Spider — 66 vv.
12. 12. Palm and Vine — 54 vv.
13. 13. Story of the Poor, Forlorn Wren — ±50 vv.

III. Literary Hymns and Prayers

1. 1. Prayer to Marduk 1 — 206 vv.
2. 2. Prayer to Marduk 2 — 200 vv.
3. 3. Marduk’s Address to the Demons — ±255 vv.
4. 4. Great Prayer to Šamaš — 200 vv.
5. 5. Great Prayer to Nabû — 226 vv.
6. 6. Hymn to the Queen of Nippur — 244 vv.
7. 7. Bullussa-rabi’s Hymn to Gula — 200 vv.
8. 8. A Syncretistic Hymn to Ištar — 39 vv.
9. 9. Hymn to Ištar (“Ištar 2”) — 180 vv.
10. 10. Hymn to Ninurta as Savior — ±50 vv.
11. 11. Syncretistic Hymn to Marduk (Eriš šummi) — 88 vv.
12. 12. Syncretistic Hymn to Gula — ±230 vv.

 

Fragmentarium

Bibliography