The website Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (a project of the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies of the Higher Education Academy) is a treasure trove of information; the Essentials section "provides a series of short overviews of the political and intellectual contexts of the letters, queries, and reports," Cuneiform Revealed is "an introduction to cuneiform script and the Akkadian language," and the Highlights section presents a small selection of the many texts on the site (given in transcription and translation, with enticing names like "Give Straw or Die!"). An excellently designed site, and I thank Kattullus at MetaFilter for bringing it to my attention.
Posted by languagehat at March 26, 2010 11:22 AMExcellent site!
Posted by: j. del col at March 26, 2010 12:13 PMOh now this 'Cuneify' feature is damn cool. Up until now if I wanted to set anything in cuneiform fonts I'd have to go, look up the Unicode number, find it, input the sign, find the next... (I'm sure there was a more practical way, I just didn't know one until now)
𒁖 𒆪 𒅖 𒇻 𒀸 𒃰 𒋫 𒉿 𒀸 𒋫 𒄿 𒄷 𒌋 𒌨 𒆠 𒅋 𒀀 𒆠 𒀸
Posted by: Mattitiahu at March 27, 2010 09:30 AM