From Newsgroup: sci.lang


https://www.popsci.com/science/missing-babylon-text-ai/

A team of ancient literature experts have
deciphered a Mesopotamain text that was missing
for over 1,000 years. Etched on clay tablets,
the Hymn to Babylon describes the ancient
megacity in “all of its majesty,” and gives
new insights into the everyday lives of those
who resided there. The text is detailed in a
study published in the journal Iraq.
...
In the Electronic Babylonian Library Platform,
study co-author and Assyriologist Enrique Jiménez
is digitizing all of the cuneiform text fragments
that have been discovered around the world. With
the help of artificial intelligence (AI), he is
piecing together fragments that belong together.

“Using our AI-supported platform, we managed to
identify 30 other manuscripts that belong to the
rediscovered hymn – a process that would formerly
have taken decades,” Jiménez said in a statement.

With these additional texts, the team was able to
completely decipher this ancient hymn of praise.
In it, they found some new insights into Babylonian
urban society and believe that the Hymn to Babylon
was very widespread.

“The hymn was copied by children at school. It’s
unusual that such a popular text in its day was
unknown to us before now,” Jiménez said. The song
of triumph–or paean–likely dates back to the start
of the first millennium before Christ and is made
up of 250 lines.
...


https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iraq/article/literary-texts-from-the-sippar-library-v-a-hymn-in-praise-of-babylon-and-the-babylonians/B477D54E6554CA35718880339B3736CD

LITERARY TEXTS FROM THE SIPPAR LIBRARY V: A
HYMN IN PRAISE OF BABYLON AND THE BABYLONIANS

Abstract
The article presents a previously unknown hymn
in praise of Marduk, the Esagil, Babylon and
the Babylonians. It contains unparalleled
descriptions of the healing powers of Marduk,
the splendor of Babylon, the spring borne by
the Euphrates to the city’s fields and the
generosity of the Babylonians themselves. The
text survives in 20 manuscripts, from the 7th
to the 2nd/1st centuries BCE, and it can be
shown that it was a fixture in the school
curriculum of the time. The author of this
highly accomplished piece immortalized his
devotion to his city, gods, and people in words
that resonated until the final decades of
cuneiform culture.


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