Researchers say that by using artificial intelligence and digital technology, they have been able to discover the connection of an ancient tablet dating back to 130 BC with a fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In the ancient civilizations of Babylon and Assyria, texts were written in cuneiform letters on clay tablets. However, following the disappearance of these civilizations and the forgetting of the languages used by them, deciphering the destroyed and scattered tablets that remained is one of the most difficult tasks.

Traditionally, researchers would transfer to paper those parts of the texts of the complex Sumerian and Akkadian writing systems that had escaped damage, and then compare them to guess which tablets corresponded and fill in the blanks of single texts. They filled it this way.

Now, thanks to technology, a special team of experts at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich has been digitizing ancient tablets for several years in the form of a project called “Fragmentarium”. Enrique Jimenez, professor of Ancient Near Eastern Literature at the Institute of Assyrian Studies in this university, and her team have digitized and processed about 22,000 pieces of tablets since 2018 and the beginning of the project.

She says about this: “It’s a tool that didn’t exist before, and we’ve been able to build a huge database of ancient tablets. “We believe that this method can play a vital role in the reconstruction of Babylonian literature and allow us to make much faster progress.”

In this method, thousands of tablets were photographed in collaboration with the British Museum in London and the Baghdad Museum. Then artificial intelligence, using an algorithm, systematically and automatically matched and placed together the copied panels whose texts are connected to each other.

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For example, in November of last year, the software identified a tablet from the Epic of Gilgamesh dating back to 130 BC.

Dr. Jimenez says: “The Epic of Gilgamesh has influenced world literature for thousands of years, and people have always talked about Gilgamesh and the issue of immortality. It is clear from the tablets that the Babylonians also tried to find an answer for immortality, but they did not succeed. Because there is no answer for this issue.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest and most famous works of literature in the era of ancient civilization, which was written for the first time around 2500 BC in the Mid-Rhodan region by the Sumerians. The Epic of Gilgamesh is about the quest for immortality and depicts this desire. When its mythological hero, Gilgamesh, embarks on a quest to “conquer death,” she ultimately fails but discovers the meaning of life along the way.

It is going to be published soon and for the first time the digital version of Gilgamesh epic. The researchers say the new version will be the first to include all known transcriptions from the time of the cuneiform tablets to the present day.

Since the beginning of the project, about 200 scholars around the world have accessed the online platform of this project and it is going to be available to the public soon. Dr. Jimenez says: “Everyone will be able to visit this project and get busy. “There are thousands of tablets that have not been identified yet.”

Finding the missing pieces of texts helps archaeologists have a more complete picture of the ancient world and discover its missing and mysterious links. Mr. Jimenez says about this: “For example, I am working with an Iraqi colleague on an ancient hymn to the city of Babylon. A very lively hymn and a delightful text that shows how spring comes to Babylon.”

He added: “There were no previously known hymns to cities in Babylonian literature. We have found 15 new tablets of this single text. “Without this digital project, the reconstruction process would have taken 30 to 40 years.”

The city of Babylon, which has been registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2019, was an ancient metropolis that was founded in the second millennium BC and was once considered the largest city in the world. This city was the seat of King Hammurabi, who ruled over a huge empire from the Persian Gulf to northern Iraq.

Experts say the newly discovered texts help to have a better picture of the literature and culture of this ancient world.