Manuscript Cultures
UWA-DESY collaborationA New Machine for Ancient Clay
18 September 2023

Photo: Karsten Helmholz
It is a significant addition to the laboratory of CSMC: a new CT scanner, which makes it possible to read sealed cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, has now arrived at the premises of the Cluster. The device was developed and built in a joint project between the CSMC and DESY.
As a little tribute to its ‘intellectual parents’, it is known at the Cluster as the ‘Schroer-Michel machine’: the novel computer tomograph, which can be used to analyse sealed cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, has recently been delivered to the Cluster’s laboratory at Warburgstraße 28 and is ready for use. In a joint effort, employees of the Cluster and DESY heaved the device, which weighs over 400 kilograms, into its new home.
The CT scanner makes it possible for the first time to read ancient cuneiform tablets whose contents have been protected from prying eyes by a clay seal. Thousands of such tablets are stored in collections and museums worldwide. The use of the mobile tomograph, which is completely non-invasive, therefore promises to be of great scientific value to assyriologists.
At the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’, the machine was designed and built in a joint project by the assyriologist Cécile Michel and the physicist Christian Schroer from the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY). Computer scientist Stephan Olbrich is also involved in the project, which is thus exemplary for the cooperation of humanities, natural sciences, and computer sciences at the Cluster.
The idea behind the project and its scientific implementation are also part of a CSMC documentary from 2022, in which Michel and Schroer explain how the unusual collaboration came about and what technical difficulties had to be overcome (starting at 4:20 minutes).