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Comment by Jun8 | Hacker News Reader

For similar large scale efforts to make ancient language texts available online with translations see:

* CDLI, https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/, for cuneiform (tablets, seals, and other objects)

* Perseus Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/item/2004564290/, for ancient and classical literature (started with Ancient greek and expanded to Latin)

If a small number of rich people donated a few million each, we’d have all tablets and other unread documents read in a short time (academic restrictions on access may be a problem) and they would look and knowledgeable.

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I feel like the magnificent Frank Krueger’s recent effort to use ML for the purpose of translating cuneiform are relevant in this context.

https://praeclarum.org/2023/06/09/cuneiform.html

> If a small number of rich people donated a few million each, we’d have all tablets and other unread documents read in a short time

There is a really large number of unread tablets.

100k, 10 million? Please give us a guess. How many are in known languages, how many unknown languages?

The ones in known languages are more than enough to absorb hundreds of millions of dollars.

People seem to have the impression that ancient writing is rare. It isn't. Two things are rare:

- Paper that can survive for thousands of years without rotting. This is why classical documents are rare.

- The desire to get some more ancient tablets translated. This is why translations of cuneiform tablets are rare. There is far more source material available than anyone is willing to pay for.

Also, the fact that most ancient writing is boring. Yes, like Irving Finkel, you might come across a new version of the Flood legend, or the rules to an ancient form of Backgammon, but 99% of the stuff is just receipts and tax reports, maybe useful to translate as part of a student's dissertation, but of no more interest than that.

For cuneiform see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446876 on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446289

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