cdli tablet

"cdli tablet" is an iPad 2+ app (IOS 6+) that combines text and images of cuneiform inscriptions and related archaeological artifacts. Sponsored by the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) based at UCLA's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, the app, inspired by the elegantly simple "guardian eyewitness," (in 2014 unfortunately disbanded and merged in the general Guardian app) was programmed by Sai Deep Tetali, graduate student of UCLA Computer Science, working together with CDLI director Bob Englund. The app gives specialists in the field of cuneiform studies, Near Eastern archaeology and art history the opportunity to present facets of the writing culture of ancient Mesopotamia to a broad community of experts and informal learners. Short descriptions of the historical relevance of selected text and text-related artifacts together with images that can, but need not be taken from CDLI's growing open access file archives, are prepared and posted to app pages. Ordered by calendar date in groups of from several to thirty pages, the resulting 'themes' give a running account of these experts' ideas; new entries are uploaded each midnight, NYC time. The app is conceived as a vehicle for the introduction, to learning communities of all ages, of a variety of chosen topics in cuneiform studies and in the digital preservation and world-wide dissemination of the shared cultural heritage of ancient Mesopotamia. The specialists who are contributing to the content of this app will include experts in all phases of the 3000-year history of the use of cuneiform, as well as the curatorial staff of major museums and university collections in North America, Europe and the Middle East—but we solicit the participation of all who share our interest in the cuneiform record.