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Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
open-in-new
<p>The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) is an international <a href="/facts/Digital_library/aBCP81In">digital library</a> project aimed at putting text and images of an estimated 500,000 recovered <a href="/facts/Cuneiform/MgIQoGu8">cuneiform</a> tablets created from between roughly 3350 BC and the end of the pre-Christian era online. Directors of the project are <a href="/facts/Robert_Keith_Englund/7o3jUXLg">Robert Keith Englund</a> from <a href="/facts/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles/KwPz7AK1">University of California, Los Angeles</a> and <a href="/facts/J%C3%BCrgen_Renn/SAhHNhwn">Jürgen Renn</a> of the <a href="/facts/Max_Planck_Institute_for_the_History_of_Science/oLRU6F2n">Max Planck Institute for the History of Science</a>. Co-principal investigators are Jacob Dahl at Oxford University, Bertrand Lafront at the <a href="/facts/Centre_national_de_la_recherche_scientifique/z8RBcY1j">Centre national de la recherche scientifique</a>, Nanterre and Émilie Pagé-Perron, <a href="/facts/University_of_Toronto/FpGjQNm9">University of Toronto</a>. Preceding leadership comprised co-director Peter Damerow (1939–2011) from the <a href="/facts/Max_Planck_Institute_for_the_History_of_Science/oLRU6F2n">Max Planck Institute for the History of Science</a> and <a href="/facts/Pennsylvania_Sumerian_Dictionary/odMWAymB">Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary</a> leader Stephen J. Tinney who was co-principal investigator. In 2004, Englund received the Richard W. Lyman Award from the <a href="/facts/National_Humanities_Center/Wy5S5pbd">National Humanities Center</a> for his work on the initiative. </p><p>The project began in 1998, but it was not until 2000 that it obtained funds for three years from the <a href="/facts/National_Endowment_for_the_Humanities/JV09yPKC">National Endowment for the Humanities</a> and the <a href="/facts/National_Science_Foundation/FlDT8TbW">National Science Foundation</a>'s Digital Libraries Initiative. This phase consisted of digitizing and progressively putting online the collections of the <a href="/facts/Vorderasiatisches_Museum/yautJA0p">Vorderasiatisches Museum</a> (online in 2001), the <a href="/facts/Institut_Catholique_de_Paris/cLVJYVqD">Institut Catholique de Paris</a> (online in 2002), the <a href="/facts/Hermitage_Museum/3lyUByHl">Hermitage Museum</a> and the <a href="/facts/Phoebe_A._Hearst_Museum_of_Anthropology/Q4XGMLgF">Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology</a> (online in 2003), and the <a href="/facts/University_of_Pennsylvania_Museum_of_Archaeology_and_Anthropology/6BQ9NJTm">University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology</a>. A second phase from 2004 to 2006 was federally funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the <a href="/facts/Institute_of_Museum_and_Library_Services/uTXas8he">Institute of Museum and Library Services</a>, during which time it focused on new educational components and scalable access systems to the data. </p>