Manuel Molina (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas,
Madrid)
Presented to the CDLI Avalon Meeting, October 2001
1.
The
database of Sumerian texts (BDTNS).
The
database integrates catalogues, transliterations, and other auxiliary tools.
Every part of the database is relationally linked with the rest, so many kinds
of searches can be made in a few seconds.
The
core of BDTNS is the Ur III material: there is a catalogue with 61,000 entries
(and thus including many thousands of unpublished tablets not currently in the
CDLI data), and 48,000 texts in transliteration; that makes 900,000 lines,
which are researchable in less than one minute. Texts are linked to lists of
personal names, divinities, toponyms, a vocabulary and other
tools.
2.
Prosopal
of work to be developed in the following months.
2.a. The
BDTNS project (Informatizacion del corpus de tablillas cuneiformes
administrativas de Època neosumeria), directed by M. Molina, is now funded by
the Ministerio de Ciencia y TecnologÌa (Spain). Members of the project are:
Marcel Sigrist (Ecole Biblique, Jerusalem), Francesco Pomponio (University of
Messina, Italy), Franco D'Agostino (University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy) and
Pietro Mander (Istituto Orientale di Napoli, Italy); the Spanish institution
has also provided funds for the contract of Dr. Marcos Such (University of
Heidelberg, Germany) and for a programmer. The European Social Fund has
provided funds for the contract of another programmer.
2.b. After
discussion with CDLI members and associates, the following plan of work on the
Ur III corpus was decided upon:
A: Catalogue and
transliterations:
1)
Removal of duplicates from the catalogue.
2)
Checking cataloguing data for all texts.
3)
Transliteration of remaining texts.
B: Material needed to fix
transliterations:
1)
Elaboration of lists of personal names, deities and geographical names (cities,
fields, canals, etc.).
2)
Elaboration of a vocabulary of Ur III texts.
3)
Elaboration of a typology of Ur III texts.
C: Fixing of transliterations according to lists,
vocabulary and CDLI conventions.
D: Conversion of transliterations into
XML.