HUJI Conservation Lab

שמחנו להיות תחנה במסע :)

We had the pleasure to host an RTI session for some cuneiform tablets (and their owners). The RTI (reflectance transformation imaging) system helps us in general during the documentation process, which is one of the most important stages of the treatment, and also serves the institute's scholars for their own research. Here you can see Prof. Horowiאz's students who are documenting the tablet with a member of our lab team.

Cuneiform is the oldest writing system in human history and records the very earliest texts ever made. It was developed around 3200 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia, the land around modern Iraq and Syria. Tablets were made by impressing reed styli into wet clay, making small triangle wedges, and was used to record administrative and economic activity, and later literature, poems, mathematics, and all sorts of other exciting genres.

Because cuneiform writing is three-dimensional, making 3D models and experimenting with lighting is incredibly important in reading the texts. In the Archaeology Conservation Laboratory we are learning to use an RTI scanner to photograph tablets and allow us to manually move a light source around, illuminating it from different angles and allowing us to read it with ease. Our goal is to upload these files to the Cuneiform Digital Library Interface (CDLI) to make the tablets accessible online to scholars around the world for analysis without needing to see the tablet in-person- an incredibly important and powerful tool in the field of Assyriology.

Another (very) exciting assemblage treated by Mimi is coming to light! https://www.timesofisrael.com/magnificent-hoard-of-gold-and-silver-coins-sheds-unprecedented-light-on-medieval-israel/

Proud to be part of this project https://huqoq.web.unc.edu/

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