About This Tool

I built this tool because, as I was reading through "the Classics" of Greco-Roman literature, I kept thinking, 'this is great, but what was BEFORE this?'

I researched the oldest known human literature and quickly found these Sumerian stories, and instantly fell in love with them. I read most of them on the Oxford ETCSL website, but it's an old website, not maintained, and just plaintext on a page--not the most friendly to read. Plus, the site goes down all the time, so when I was in the mood for the next text, half the time I couldn't even access it.

At first I decided I would mirror the texts on my own website, just for my own personal use and convenience. Then I thought, 'I might as well style them a little better so they're easier to read, too - why not?' From there it became 'Why not display the glosses?', 'Why not add in some features?', and the Easy Reader was born.

I shared the Easy Reader on a couple relevant Sumerian subreddits and got some amazing feedback from actual experts in the space. Based on this feedback, I was able to put together this Scholarly Reader version of the tool, with more features and functionality. Credit goes to Andrew Deloucas, a Harvard Assyriology PhD candidate, who has given me major help, especially on the cuneiform column which I can code but cannot read. I also got some inspiration from Alek Szahala and some other anonymous commenters.

Credit for all of the Sumerian translations, glosses, transliterations, and other linguistic information goes to the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature at Oxford University. Copyright details are at the bottom of every page.

Credit for the very important cuneiform lookup table I use goes to Tommi Jauhiainen at the University of Helsinki, originally for use in this article.

Of course, the most important credit must go to the ancient writers themselves, as well as the preservers of these tablets throughout history. It's nothing short of miraculous to be able to look back 4,000 years into the past and understand our fellow human beings.

Please let me know if you have any feedback on the tool! Contact me here.