Official inauguration following the first field tripX-Ray Views into Ancient Clay Envelopes

2 May 2024

Photo: Karsten Helmholz

From left to right: Cécile Michel (assyriology, co-principal investigator), Konrad Hirschler (spokesperson UWA), Stephan Olbrich (computer science, co-principal investigator), Christian Schroer (x-ray physics, co-principal investigator), Senator Katharina Fegebank, and UHH President Hauke Heekeren.

On 29 April, in the presence of Senator Katharina Fegebank, UHH President Hauke Heekeren, and other guests, researchers from UWA and DESY presented the ENCI, the first and only mobile computer tomograph with which sealed cuneiform tablets can be read for the first time.

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Even ordinary everyday objects like envelopes can have a fascinating history. According to legend, they owe their invention around 4,400 years ago to King Ur-Zababa, who saw the fortune of his confidant Sargon with growing suspicion. Sargon was considered a favourite of the gods and Ur-Zababa feared that he might become a threat to his power. Ur-Zababa therefore sent Sargon to the King of Umma to deliver an important message. As always at the time, this message was written in cuneiform on a clay tablet; but unlike usual, a clay envelope protected the tablet from the eyes of its courier. Without realising it, Sargon delivered to the king his own death sentence.

Due to their enormous durability – over a million of them are still stored in museums and archives around the world – cuneiform tablets provide us with unique insights into life in antiquity. Indeed, they document two-thirds of recorded human history. However, many of these written artefacts have kept their secret over the millennia because, thanks to the invention of Ur-Zababa, they are enclosed in clay envelopes. They cannot be opened for both ethical and practical reasons: for one thing, the envelopes themselves are valuable historical artefacts; moreover, the objects are so fragile that the attempt to open the envelopes could also destroy the tablets inside.

Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’ (UWA) and DESY have therefore worked together for several years to develop a worldwide unique computer tomograph that makes it possible to look non-invasively into the clay envelopes and read the tablets inside. ENCI – an acronym for ‘Extracting Non-destructively Cuneiform Inscriptions’ and also a reference to a Sumerian god – is a true featherweight at just over 400 kilograms, at least in comparison to similarly powerful tomographs, which usually weigh several tonnes. Researchers can therefore use it to examine cuneiform tablets on-site in museums and archives. This is necessary because the valuable objects are generally not allowed to be transported.

Photo: Karsten Helmholz

Stephan Olbrich (right) shows Katharina Fegebank a 3D reconstruction of a cuneiform tablet on a special screen that creates the 3D effect without goggles.

Photo: Karsten Helmholz

UHH President Hauke Heekeren during his opening address.

Photo: Karsten Helmholz

Katharina Fegebank receives a 3D print of one of the clay tablets analysed at the Louvre from the Assyriologist Cécile Michel.

Photo: Karsten Helmholz

The whole ENCI team with Senator Katharina Fegebank, UHH president Hauke Heekeren, and UWA spokesperson Konrad Hirschler.

In February this year, ENCI went on its first field trip to one of the world’s most famous museums: researchers used it to analyse sealed ancient loan contracts in the Louvre in Paris. Besides being the first to read the previously unknown texts, they also gained new insights into the tablets themselves, for example differences in the composition and processing techniques of the clay in different parts of the Mesopotamian empire. Thanks to the complex visualisation of the data provided by the computer scientists involved, ENCI can also generate high-resolution 3D reconstructions of the tablets under investigation, which can be used for authentic 3D prints.

Now back in Hamburg, UWA now officially celebrated the inauguration of the device. The project leaders, Assyriologist Cécile Michel, X-ray physicist Christian Schroer, and computer scientist Stephan Olbrich, described their joint journey from the first sketches to a functioning tomograph. Among the invited guests were Senator Katharina Fegebank and UHH President Hauke Heekeren, who both emphasised the exemplary interdisciplinary nature of the project. This makes it characteristic for UWA, which places the materiality of written artefacts at the centre of its research and therefore brings together expertise from the humanities, natural sciences, and computer sciences. Against this background, UWA spokesperson Konrad Hirschler highlighted the importance of the cooperation of the Cluster with DESY. Parallel to the ENCI project, several joint pilot studies are currently being carried out and more are planned.

The destination for ENCI’s next field trip is already clear: further investigations are to be carried out this year in Ankara, Turkey, where a large number of sealed letters are stored. They are of particular interest for research, says Michel. Before that, however, people in Hamburg will have the opportunity to see ENCI for themselves: it will be on display at the Science City Day on 1 June.

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