First discovered in the late 1920s, the Ugaritic texts have become one of the most important sources to scholars for understanding the Hebrew Bible. They have made equally valuable contributions to the studies of the history of religion and the cultural history of ancient Syria as well. Unlike other cuneiform collections, these remarkable tablets from the fourteenth to thirteenth centuries B.C.E. are written in a Northwest Semitic language unique to themselves, but which is arguably the nearest known language to classical Hebrew. Unfortunately their state of preservation when they were discovered was poor, and over the years with repeated handling they have deteriorated even further. To add to the frustration of scholars in various fields concerning the texts, a legible photographic archive does not exist, making a personal handling of the tablets necessary to clarify difficult sections.
With the approval and encouragement of both the Syrian and French authorities, the Ugaritic Tablets Digital Edition project (UTDE) has undertaken the vital task of producing for the first time a photographic edition of these texts which will reduce the need for repeated handling and further deterioration of each unique document. In order to facilitate access to these photographs, the UTDE plans to publish them on CD-ROM to keep the costs within the range of individual scholars and research libraries.
The UTDE consists of six epigraphers (senior editors - Drs. Bruce Zuckerman, University of Southern California; and Wayne Pitard, University of Illinois; collaborators - Drs. Jo Ann Hackett, Harvard University; Theodore Lewis, University of Georgia; F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Princeton University; and myself) and a small support staff. Each member of this collaborative research project must provide her or his own funding. Several hundred photographs of the tablets, both full sweeps and macro-photographs of difficult areas, have been shot using advanced photographic techniques. These photographs have been scanned onto CD-ROMs and distributed to all six epigraphers for editing. The editing consists of making copious epigraphic notes of each tablet for comparison among the epigraphic team so that a consensus of what the texts actually read may be produced along with the actual photographs of the tablets. This project has gained international attention and has been supported by numerous grants, including a Fulbright to Dr. Pitard, a Lilly Small Grant and a private foundation grant to myself.
The significance of this project is multifaceted, but the two main goals alone make the project worthy of consideration. First, it will assist in physically preserving a body of literature which outweighs even the Dead Sea Scrolls in providing background knowledge of the religion and world of the Hebrew Bible. Secondly, it will provide a transliterated edition based on the readings of six specialists in the field. This latter point should be emphasized. To date three major editions of the Ugaritic Tablets have appeared (in 1963, 1976, 1995). These editions disagree substantially on the readings in many places -- this fact encourages scholars to travel to Aleppo or Paris to examine the tablets personally. Despite this situation, no legible photographic edition of these texts has yet been published. The UTDE will provide a service to scholars around the world in the production of such an edition.
In addition to producing a CD-ROM version of the photographs, the photographic sweeps of the tablets are to be placed on the world-wide-web for consultation by those who cannot afford or will not have access to the CD-ROM edition. This work has already begun and photos are to be posted at the project's website.
Additional material on the project may be found in the following source: Steve A. Wiggins and Theodore J. Lewis, "The Current State of Ugaritic Studies and Technology", The Handbook of Ugaritic Studies. Handbuch der Orientalistik 39. W. G. E. Watson and N. Wyatt, editors. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999: 734-746.
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This page was last modified 2 July 1999.