The
Cuneiform ProjectScholars & collections
Help shape the reading workflow, assess difficult signs, and connect the work with images and scholarly editions.
A public-interest research initiative
The ancient world,
in its own words.
Written in clay. Preserved for millennia.
Help make its
stories accessible to everyone.
Our mission
A shared past.
A collective effort.
Receipts. Letters. Loans. Livestock counts. Cuneiform tablets preserve the details of lives lived thousands of years ago.
The Cuneiform Project is a public-interest research initiative developing AI-assisted cuneiform sign recognition and basic translation. We bring machine learning and scholarship together to help specialists read ancient tablets while preserving the evidence behind each proposed sign.
Our goal is to help scholars read tablets at scale, connect their records, and uncover a richer picture of the ancient world: how people worked, traded, and lived.
Built for research. Grounded in evidence. Intended for everyone.
Cuneiform sign recognition
Every reading starts
with the evidence.
Our tools find possible signs in a photograph and suggest alternatives. A scholar can inspect the original image and make the call.
Photograph: British Museum, via CDLI. View source record
An inspectable reading
A suggestion.
A starting point.
Select a marked sign to see the model’s alternatives.
Recorded research example. Select a sign to explore the model’s suggestions alongside the original photograph.
From sign recognition to basic translation, we’re building toward a connected record of the ancient world. Explore our early results and the work ahead.
What could these records reveal?
What is written on the tablets?
Letters. Receipts. Loans. Records of work and trade. Alongside the stories of kings, cuneiform preserves the business of everyday life: what people bought, what they owed, and how they made a living.
What could we learn by reading them together?
A single tablet might record a delivery of grain. Thousands could help us trace how goods moved, how work was organized, and how economies changed. We want to turn scattered records into a connected resource for studying the ancient world.
How can AI help?
Our early tools support sign recognition and basic translation. We’re building on that foundation to help scholars read more tablets, compare records, and follow connections across collections. The aim is to make more of this history available to study and share.
A place to contribute
The next chapter
is a shared one.
This work brings together people who understand ancient writing, people who build new tools, and people who believe the past belongs to everyone.
Engineers & researchers
Advance sign detection, recognition, and the tools that keep every proposed reading connected to its evidence.
Partners & supporters
Help make careful annotation, research time, and computing resources available for the work ahead.