Abstract

As traditional scholars, Assyriologists have often relied on authority rather than reproducibility to build upon colleagues’ work. With the important digitisation movement of the last 30 years, the toolkit at the disposal has tremendously diversified. Although a minority of specialists have developed a digital branch of Assyriology and embraced new methods, sometimes following in the footsteps of fellow archaeologists, this new territory of possibilities remains largely unexplored. In this talk, I will introduce a few computational approaches to text and their application, looking at human-environment interactions and ancient identity markers. These approaches rely on computational linguistic methods, and encompass information extraction and (linguistic) network analysis. Reuse of such methods, despite open source practice, often depends on sustainable research infrastructures. In that spirit, I will introduce the EU ATRIUM project which focuses on reusable archaeological digital research workflows and what this can mean for the future of the study of cuneiform cultures.

The talk will be in-person but is accessible online. Everyone welcome! Online registration for this talk: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtcOihpzspGdeh2u7GOQl1P8JjtkZmpi7T#/registration