A project begun in 1921 to translate ancient cuneiform has finally finished, notes the Guardian.
From the story...
The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary identifies and explains the words carved in stone and written in cuneiform on clay tablets by Babylonians and Assyrians in Mesopotamia between 2500 BC and AD100.
The project was first embarked upon in 1921 by James Henry Breasted, founder of Chicago University's Oriental Institute, and has seen millions of index cards referencing 28,000 words in the Semitic Akkadian language compiled over the last 90 years.
The various meanings for each word are laid out in the 21-volume dictionary, as well as their context and means of use. The entry for the word "umu", for example, meaning day, runs to 17 pages and covers its use in the Epic of Gilgamesh: "Those who took crowns who had rule of the land in the days of yore."
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