Open Access Journal: eBL Newsletter

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Open Access Journal: eBL Newsletter

[First posted in AWOL 12 August 2023, updated 17 Februry 2026]

The Electronic Babylonian Literature (eBL) Project started in April 2018 at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich thanks to the generous support of a Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Fundation. The goal of the project is to bring Babylonian literature to the point of what can currently be reconstructed. Moreover, it aims to make accessible a large mass of transliterations of fragments of cuneiform tablets and a tool to allow scholars to search it quickly, thus providing a lasting solution to the abiding problem of the fragmentary character of Mesopotamian Literature.

Nr. 21
February 10, 2026

Library

Proper names: We now have rules for normalising names in cuneiform texts, see generic-documentation/guides/properNames.md at master · ElectronicBabylonianLiterature/generic-documentation. Please bear this in mind when translating and soon also when lemmatising and normalising entities.
Script: Beyond “Early” and “Late”, also “Middle” can be used now as a period modifier.
References: “Acquisition” and “Seal” have been added as new reference types. The latter should be used for discussions of seals and seal impressions, while photos and copies of seals should be referred to as “Photo” and “Copy”, respectively.
The ATF Importer has been completely reimplemented. It is now possible to import ATF in different formats, including labelled translations and legacy ATF. For more details, see GitHub - ElectronicBabylonianLiterature/ebl-api: Electronic Babylonian Literature API.
The ngram-matcher can now be used with the editions OCRed from photos (GitHub - ElectronicBabylonianLiterature/ngram-matcher).
The eBL markup has been extended to support subscript (@sub{}), superscript (@sup{}), and bold (@b{}) text.
New photos:
More than 5000 photos from the British Museum’s Babylonian (BM.14000–14999, BM.16000–17752) and Sippar Collections (BM.49487–52761) have been uploaded.
Another 600 new British Museum fragments have been imported (“Newly Registered Fragments Collection”): DT.521–532, K.23197–23683, Sp-III.836–938, 1932,1212.1501–1519 and 2025,6001.1–50.
650 photos from the Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities in Jena, including those of the TMH 13 tablets and many previously unregistered fragments (HS.2470.A–2476.I, HS.2522–2536.Z, HS.2691–2698.B, HS.2714.D–2794), have been added.

New folios:
The acquisition registers of the Vorderasiatisches Museum’s tablet collection (VAT) have been indexed and uploaded as folios.
A collection of 12 unpublished copies by A.R. George has been uploaded (BM.50084, Si.741, Si.824, Si.861, K.15525, K.10953, K.11887, K.14483, K.19236, K.9687, Ist-A.135.A, Ist-A.135.B).

New genres within Mathematical Astronomy and Mathematics, thanks to M. Ossendrijver. Mathematical Astronomy: Procedure Texts, Tables (Synodic Tables, Auxiliary Tables, Daily Motion Tables, Template Tables). Mathematics: Problem Texts, Lists (Coefficient Lists, Metrological Lists), Tables (Metrological Tables, Multiplication Tables, Tables of Reciprocals, Tables of Squares, Tables of Square Roots, Tables of Cubic Roots, Factorization Tables, Other Tables).
eBL Evenings: We will be hosting Zoom sessions to showcase eBL’s features and tools. These sessions will include a Q&A – please feel free to submit questions in advance via e-mail. The next session is scheduled for March 13th at 5:00 PM CET. If you would like to attend, please register at the link.