Securing Data in Mesopotamia: New Technologies for Secured Cuneiform Texts
15 - 19 March 2021
Venue: Lorentz Center@Snellius
If you are invited or already registered for this workshop, you have received login details by email.From the earliest stages of writing in Mesopotamia in the late fourth millennium BCE, the need to share information went hand in hand with concerns about data security. Clay tablets bearing cuneiform text were incised, imprinted, encased, wrapped, copied and otherwise manipulated in order to validate them and to protect them from forgery and unwanted access. The processes of data control that accompanied the written text since the dawn of history require a research strategy that goes far beyond traditional text analysis. In order to study Mesopotamia’s ancient communication system in all its aspects, we propose to create a new multidisciplinary research community consisting of historians, archaeologists, linguists, epigraphists, geo-scientists, computer scientists and experts from the social, cognitive and applied sciences.
This workshop will take place at both the Snellius and Oort venue.
Monday 15 March 2021
Preliminary time table (latest update November 16 2020)
| 10:00 | 10:30 | Registration and coffee | |
| 10:30 | 10:45 | Welcome by the Lorentz Center | |
| 10:45 | 11:15 | Introduction by the organizers: aims of the workshop | |
| 11:15 | 11:45 | Keynote 1: Imaging the inside of clay tablets: the state so far | |
| 11:45 | 12:15 | Keynote 2: Ancient techniques of clay tablet manufacture: the unknowns | |
| 12:15 | 14:00 | Lunch and time for participants networking | |
| 14:00 | 15:00 | Group activity. 1: X-ray and neutron CT. 2: Breakage of clay tablets: a testimony from conservation. 3: Clay envelopes: function, format, history. | |
| 15:00 | 16:00 | Break-out session | |
| 16:00 | 16:30 | Reports of break-out session, group discussion | |
| 16:30 | 18:15 | Site visit to the Böhl collection of cuneiform tablets at NINO | |
| 18:15 | 20:00 | Wine and Cheese party at the Lorentz Centre |
Tuesday 16 March 2021
| 09:00 | 09:30 | Keynote 1: Sign and handwriting recognition in digital cuneiform projects | |
| 09:30 | 10:00 | Keynote 2: Identifying scribal agency: philology and paleography | |
| 10:00 | 10:30 | Keynote 3: Finger print analysis in archaeology & forensic investigation | |
| 10:30 | 11:00 | Coffee break | |
| 11:00 | 12:00 | Group activity: 1. Tablet in mini-dome. 2. Soft wrappings of clay tablets: types and uses. 3. Rope, textile and reed mat traces on Neolithic pottery. 4. Duplicating texts for security | |
| 12:00 | 13:30 | Lunch | |
| 13:30 | 14:30 | Break-out session. Q1: What new questions can we ask about data security in ancient Mesopotamia thanks to surface scanning techniques? Q2: What else would we like to capture but cannot yet with these digitalization techniques? | |
| 14:30 | 15:00 | Reports of break-out session, group discussion | |
| 15:00 | 16:15 | On the train to Delft | |
| 16:15 | 17:45 | Laboratory visit at the TU Delft | |
| 17:45 | 20:00 | Tram to the city center of Delft and dinner |
Wednesday 17 March 2021
| 09:00 | 09:30 | Keynote 1: The Archaeology of archives in Mesopotamia | |
| 09:30 | 10:00 | Keynote 2: Provenance analysis of clay texts: state of the art and prospects | |
| 10:00 | 10:30 | Keynote 3: Plant remains and other organic inclusions in clay tablets | |
| 10:30 | 11:00 | Coffee break | |
| 11:00 | 12:00 | Group activity: 1: Ink traces on clay tablets: an epigraphers testimony. 2: Elemental chemistry measurement techniques. 3: XRD, clay mineralogy. 4: Rubbish or archive? | |
| 12:00 | 12:30 | Plenary discussion: the clay tablet as data container beyond text. | |
| 12:30 | 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00 | 14:30 | Keynote 1: Ancient data security as a matter of human cognition | |
| 14:30 | 15:00 | Keynote 2: The organization of knowledge in the earliest cuneiform texts | |
| 15:00 | 16:15 | Group activity: 1: Social network analysis as a tool in studying data security. 2: Curating clay tablets. 3: Multidisciplinary information systems of cuneiform texts. 4: Virtualization of cuneiform tablets in Mainz. 5: Text fabric | |
| 16:15 | 17:15 | Break-out session. Q1: what does a cognitive approach to data security in the historical periods entail? Q2: What are the ethical dimensions of ancient data security? | |
| 17:15 | 18:30 | Reports of break-out session, group discussion | |
| 18:30 | 21:00 | Boat trip |
Thursday 18 March 2021
| 09:00 | 10:30 | Plenary session: 1: Towards a multi-physics analysis of cuneiform tablets testimonies from the field. 2: Corpus selection and sample-taking: best practices. 3: Data sharing | |
| 10:30 | 11:00 | Coffee break | |
| 11:00 | 11:45 | Plenary session (continuation). 4: Infrastructure and knowledge exchange. 5: Societal impact, valorization. | |
| 11:45 | 12:15 | Wrapping up the morning plenary session | |
| 12:15 | 13:45 | Lunch | |
| 13:45 | 15:30 | Plenary session | |
| 15:30 | 16:00 | Coffee break | |
| 16:00 | 19:00 | Wrapping up the afternoon plenary session | |
| 19:00 | 21:00 | Dinner in Leiden |
Friday 19 March 2021
| 09:00 | 09:45 | Informal meeting with grant advisers from LURIS and TU Delft | |
| 09:45 | 10:00 | Briefing from the LDE Center for Global Heritage | |
| 10:00 | 10:15 | Personal reflection on commitment | |
| 10:15 | 10:45 | Coffee break | |
| 10:45 | 12:00 | Plenary session (sticky-note brainstorm session) | |
| 12:00 | 13:30 | Lunch | |
| 13:30 | 15:00 | Plenary session | |
| 15:00 | 16:00 | Closing |
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