Gürsel, Haluk (1988). An Expert System for Cuneiform Interpretation. Middle-East Technical University METU (Master's thesis but listed here due to its pioneering nature)
Type: Research Paper
Topics: Sign query; transliteration
Language/dialect: Hittite
Methods: Prolog; Expert Systems
Abstract: "Interpretation of cuneiform texts is a field which has not yet had its share of computer technology. Even in countries where computers are applied to almost every type of work, cuneiform handling is still a manual process peculiar to a few specialists. A major reason for this is the fact that computers and cumeifom as an ancient script are two completely different notions; the difficulty of representing cuneiform symbols in a computer environment has been the second reason. This thesis is about the expert system developed to transfrom an available Hittite cuneiform text into readable form. The expert system, developed in Prolog, first lets user define known cuneiform symbols. Later, the symbols are converted to their readable equivalents. This conversion is a task based on some complicated rules which are expressed in Prolog. The need of relatively expensive special I/O devices are thus eliminated by using such an approach." (Gürsel)