Sumerian is the first language for which we have written evidence and its literature the earliest known. The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), a project of the University of Oxford, comprises a selection of nearly 400 literary compositions recorded on sources which come from ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and date to the late third and early second millennia BCE. The corpus contains Sumerian texts in transliteration, English prose translations and bibliographical information for each composition. The transliterations and the translations can be searched, browsed and read online using the tools of the website. Funding for the ETCSL project came to an end in the summer of 2006 and no work is currently being done to this site or its contents.
Project members
- Jeremy Black (1951–2004), editor and project director (1997–2004)
- John Baines, project director (2004–2006)
- Graham Cunningham, senior editor
- Jacob L. Dahl, project director (2008– )
- Jarle Ebeling, technical developer
- Esther Flückiger-Hawker, editor
- Eleanor Robson, technical developer and project associate
- Jon Taylor, editor and project associate
- Marc Van De Mieroop, project director (2006–2007)
- Gábor Zólyomi, editor and project associate
Funding
The ETCSL, a project of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the University of Oxford, received funding from the following bodies:
- The Arts and Humanities Research Board, 2001–2006
- The Leverhulme Trust, 1997–2000
- The University of Oxford, 1997, 2006
- The British Academy and The Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2003–2006
Copyright © J.A. Black, G. Cunningham, E. Robson, and G. Zólyomi 1998, 1999, 2000; J.A. Black, G. Cunningham, E. Flückiger-Hawker, E. Robson, J. Taylor, and G. Zólyomi 2001; J.A. Black, G. Cunningham, J. Ebeling, E. Robson, J. Taylor, and G. Zólyomi 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005; G. Cunningham, J. Ebeling, E. Robson, and G. Zólyomi 2006. The authors have asserted their moral rights.
Source: Author or Publisher
