Information technology and science: Tyumen scientists will study the texts of ancient Sumerian literature for creating an electronic library

The scientists of the Tyumen State University study the texts of ancient Sumerian literature. The task of the scientific group is to create a library of texts with the help of Unicodes - universal codes that display Sumerian-Akkadian symbols in electronic form, - said Sergei Grigorishin, an assistant professor at the Department of Archeology, History of the Ancient World and Middle Ages of the Tyumen State University.

"Until now, the corpus of Sumerian literature in the cuneiform original version has not been published in its entirety, there are editions of individual hymns, songs, proverbs, but there is no complete collection. The aim of the research group is the systematic recruitment of each of the literary texts by cuneiform signs using the unicode system. Thus, the whole body of cuneiform literary texts will be available in digital format. A website with a database of Sumerian texts is already being created, which will be offered to leading universities as a supplement to existing resources", - S. Grigorishin said.

He noted that for the full implementation of the project it is necessary to collaborate with specialists from other countries. "We have been dealing with this topic for more than five years. In the framework of the project, clay tablets with ancient Babylonian and Newassyrian texts will be studied and entered into the database using a special computer program for character set. But there are complications, for example, in Unicode all symbols that exist in cuneiform are not displayed, there are some differences, so we also need to solve this question", - the scientist added.

According Grigorishin, the library of literary texts will be accessible to everyone who is interested in this subject. "The resource will be open to all. We strive to teach the reader the idea that when reading only a translation, he gets only an incomplete mapping of the source. Working with the original source, the reader can immerse himself in the text deeper and more detailed, the more the system will be built clearly and accessible", - he said.