Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Long ago, people wrote letters on clay. They put the clay letters inside clay covers to keep them safe.
These letters are about 4,000 years old. For a long time, no one could read them without breaking the cover.
Now scientists use a special machine to look inside. They can read the words without opening the clay. The machine is called ENCI.
- clay
- a type of soft earth that becomes hard when dry
- letter
- a written message from one person to another
- cover
- something placed over an object to protect it
- old
- having existed for a long time
- read
- to look at words and understand them
- break
- to make something come apart into pieces
- machine
- a tool with moving parts that does a job
- scientist
- a person who studies the world using careful methods
Level 2 — Elementary
About 4,000 years ago, people in ancient Anatolia wrote letters using a system of marks called cuneiform. They pressed the marks into soft clay tablets and then covered each tablet in a clay envelope to protect it.
For a long time, scholars could only read the letters by breaking the clay envelopes, which risked damaging them forever. Now a portable X-ray scanner called ENCI can look inside without opening them.
The scanner was used at a museum in Ankara to study about 50 sealed letters and contracts. The letters come from an old trading town and describe the daily business of merchants and families, including a woman named Anna-anna.
- ancient
- belonging to the very distant past
- cuneiform
- one of the earliest writing systems, made with wedge-shaped marks in clay
- tablet
- a flat piece of clay used for writing in ancient times
- envelope
- a cover that holds and protects something inside
- scholar
- a person who studies a subject deeply
- portable
- able to be carried or moved easily
- scanner
- a machine that produces images of the inside of an object
- merchant
- a person who buys and sells goods for a living
Level 3 — Intermediate
Researchers have found a way to read 4,000-year-old letters from ancient Anatolia without ever opening the sealed clay envelopes that protect them. Using a portable X-ray computed tomography scanner named ENCI, short for Extracting Non-destructively Cuneiform Inscriptions, the team can image the wedge-shaped writing hidden inside each envelope and reconstruct the text.
The approach solves a long-standing dilemma. Cuneiform tablets from this period were often encased in clay envelopes, and traditionally the only way to read the inner tablet was to break the outer shell, an irreversible act that destroyed part of the artifact. ENCI, which weighs about 420 kilograms and breaks down into eight pieces for transport, was designed specifically to bring high-resolution imaging directly into museum collections.
The scanner was first tested at the Louvre in Paris before being taken to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, where it examined around 50 encased letters and contracts. Many originate from the ancient trading town of Kanesh and reveal the everyday concerns of merchants, families, and businesswomen such as Anna-anna, who managed affairs while men traveled the trade routes. The findings were published in the journal npj Heritage Science.
- computed tomography
- an imaging method that uses X-rays to build detailed cross-section pictures
- inscription
- words or symbols written or carved onto a surface
- reconstruct
- to rebuild or piece together something from available parts
- dilemma
- a difficult choice between two options
- encased
- completely enclosed or covered by something
- irreversible
- impossible to undo or return to a former state
- artifact
- an object made by humans in the past, kept for study
- high-resolution
- showing a great amount of fine detail
Level 4 — Advanced
A team of researchers has demonstrated that the correspondence of Bronze Age Anatolia can be recovered without the destructive gesture that once made such reading possible. Deploying a purpose-built portable X-ray computed tomography instrument named ENCI, an acronym for Extracting Non-destructively Cuneiform Inscriptions, the scholars imaged the wedge-shaped script sealed within 4,000-year-old clay envelopes and reconstructed the enclosed texts without disturbing the outer casing.
The innovation resolves a dilemma that has long constrained Assyriology. Letters and contracts of the Old Assyrian trading network were frequently sheathed in an outer clay envelope, and the conventional route to the inner tablet ran through the irreversible fracture of that protective shell, an act that traded knowledge for the integrity of the artifact. ENCI, weighing roughly 420 kilograms yet dismantling into eight transportable modules, was conceived expressly to deliver laboratory-grade imaging into the galleries and storerooms where such fragile objects reside.
Following an initial trial at the Louvre, the apparatus traveled to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, where it interrogated some 50 encased documents. A substantial share derive from Kanesh, a bustling commercial hub, and their contents illuminate the granular texture of ancient economic life: the ledgers, anxieties, and negotiations of merchants and of businesswomen such as Anna-anna, who administered household and commercial affairs while their male counterparts plied the caravan routes. Reported in npj Heritage Science, the method promises to unlock thousands of comparable sealed tablets held in collections worldwide.
- correspondence
- letters and written communication exchanged between people
- acronym
- a word formed from the first letters of a series of words
- Assyriology
- the study of the languages, history, and culture of ancient Assyria and Mesopotamia
- sheathed
- enclosed or covered as if in a protective case
- integrity
- the state of being whole and undamaged
- interrogated
- examined closely to obtain information
- granular
- showing fine detail; made up of small distinct parts
- ledger
- a book or record of financial accounts and transactions
