The earliest evidence in human history for the conscious organization and transmission of scholarly knowledge comes from the Sumerians, who lived on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). This knowledge, recorded in cuneiform writing on clay tablets, was conventionally laid down in the format of lexical lists, not unlike modern dictionaries. The Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Lexical Texts (DCCLT), led by Professor Niek Veldhuis of the University of California at Berkeley, will publish this intellectual heritage on the Internet. The ultimate aim of the DCCLT is to have all lexical tablets photographed and transliterated, and to publish these in a searchable format. The full corpus of cuneiform lexical texts is estimated at 15,000 individual clay tablets and ranging in time from about 3,200 BCE to 100 CE.

The lexical corpus represents ancient intellectual activities and achievements. The DCCLT will provide both scholars and the general public with the primary evidence for a much-neglected chapter in the intellectual history of humanity. Furthermore, our knowledge of the Sumerian language and writing system largely depends on this lexical corpus. All of our understanding of Sumerian religion, literature, political history, and bureaucracy ultimately depends on a correct understanding and a reliable reconstruction of the ancient lists of words and signs. The DCCLT will allow scholars to search for words and signs and link the search results to images of the actual lists. The lexical data sets will be fully integrated into the Sumerian Dictionary and the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.

Funding of the DCCLT for the academic year 2003-2004 was provided by a grant from the Hellman Family Fund.