{"schema":"https://ver.cy/schemas/card/1.0.0","id":"vr.tr.cuneiform","code":"thing-q401","url":"https://ver.cy/models/thing/q401/","name":"cuneiform","alternateNames":["Hittite cuneiform","Sumerian writing","Early Dynastic cuneiform","Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform","Old Persian cuneiform","Urartian cuneiform","Elamite cuneiform"],"kind":"thing","status":"published","version":"0.1.0-research.1","language":"en","classifiers":{"family":"Thing Registry","category":"Information and virtual systems","entryKind":"thing","plane":"INF","domain":["INF.MED"],"industry":[],"navPath":"","tags":[],"facets":{}},"whatItIs":"Cuneiform is a family of writing systems whose signs are impressed as wedges in clay (or carved in stone and other media) and that originated in southern Mesopotamia in the late fourth millennium BCE for Sumerian, later adapted to Akkadian and other languages of the ancient Near East.","purpose":"Enable an AI agent to recognise cuneiform writing, assess the evidence and uncertainty behind its identification and interpretation, and choose justified next steps for documenting or reading it.","scope":{"in":["Recognition of cuneiform writing and discrimination from incidental marks, decoration and imitations","Sign forms, variants and inventories within an identified cuneiform tradition","Writing direction, sign order, line organisation and reading sequence","Relationships between signs, linguistic values, transliterations and interpretations","Legibility, competing readings and evidential limits of a particular inscription","Compatibility and uncertainty when comparing cuneiform witnesses or digital representations"],"out":["The carrier object's excavation, ownership, conservation and physical treatment","Complete grammars and lexicons of languages written in cuneiform","Historical reconstruction of the people, institutions and events mentioned in texts","Collection management, acquisition and legal title to artefacts","General photography, scanning and digital file preservation","Independent models of other writing systems or modern typefaces"],"boundaries":[]},"distinguishingFeatures":["Test whether apparent wedges form recurrent, organised sign configurations rather than isolated tool impressions or decorative patterns.","Test whether sign shapes and their arrangement fit an identifiable cuneiform tradition; wedge-like appearance alone is insufficient.","Distinguish the writing system from the language: recognising cuneiform must not automatically assign a Sumerian, Akkadian or other linguistic reading.","Distinguish logosyllabic, alphabetic and other proposed sign-system assignments through inventory and use, rather than treating all cuneiform as one encoding system.","Distinguish an inscription's visible marks from a modern transliteration, normalised font rendering or reconstructed reading, each of which represents different evidence."],"structure":{"bundles":[{"id":"cuneiform-recognition","name":"Cuneiform recognition","description":"Establish whether the marks constitute cuneiform and which sign tradition could account for them.","layers":[{"id":"wedge-and-sign-evidence","name":"Wedge and sign evidence","description":"Examine the configurations that make marks candidates for cuneiform signs.","findings":[{"id":"organised-sign-configurations","name":"Organised sign configurations","description":"Record the visible basis for grouping marks into signs, including alternatives involving damage, decoration or imitation.","questions":[{"text":"Which combinations of wedge heads, strokes, orientations and spacing support segmentation into cuneiform signs?","id":"organised-sign-configurations-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"What evidence distinguishes these configurations from accidental impressions, decoration or a modern imitation?","id":"organised-sign-configurations-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"tradition-assignment","name":"Tradition assignment","description":"Constrain identification through compatible sign inventories and writing conventions.","findings":[{"id":"candidate-sign-traditions","name":"Candidate sign traditions","description":"Record candidate traditions and the diagnostic evidence for each without deriving language solely from appearance.","questions":[{"text":"Which sign forms and conventions support each proposed cuneiform tradition, and which contradict it?","id":"candidate-sign-traditions-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Which examined sign lists or attributed inscriptions supply the comparisons, and how closely do they match the proposed period and region?","id":"candidate-sign-traditions-q02","kind":"provenance"}]}]}]},{"id":"sign-forms-and-identities","name":"Sign forms and identities","description":"Connect observed wedge configurations to sign identities while retaining variation and ambiguity.","layers":[{"id":"graphic-segmentation","name":"Graphic segmentation","description":"Establish where signs begin and end and which marks belong to them.","findings":[{"id":"sign-boundaries","name":"Sign boundaries","description":"Record alternative segmentations where crowding, overlapping impressions or damage obscure sign boundaries.","questions":[{"text":"Which visible marks belong to each proposed sign, and where could the same marks support a different segmentation?","id":"sign-boundaries-q01","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"Which wedge orientations, relative positions or spacing measurements would discriminate between those segmentations?","id":"sign-boundaries-q02","kind":"measurement"}]}]},{"id":"variants-and-normalisation","name":"Variants and normalisation","description":"Relate an observed form to candidate sign identities and tradition-specific variants.","findings":[{"id":"form-to-sign-mapping","name":"Form-to-sign mapping","description":"Preserve the observed form alongside sign-list identifiers and any uncertainty introduced by normalisation.","questions":[{"text":"Which sign identities remain compatible with the surviving wedges, using which named sign list and edition?","id":"form-to-sign-mapping-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Would normalising this form erase a distinction relevant to this tradition, scribal practice or reading?","id":"form-to-sign-mapping-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"textual-order-and-functions","name":"Textual order and functions","description":"Establish reading sequence and distinguish linguistic signs from numerical, metrological or organising functions.","layers":[{"id":"inscription-layout","name":"Inscription layout","description":"Represent how the inscription's spatial arrangement supports a reading sequence.","findings":[{"id":"supported-reading-sequence","name":"Supported reading sequence","description":"Record sign, line, column and surface order, retaining unresolved transitions.","questions":[{"text":"What supports the proposed orientation and sequence of signs, lines, columns and inscribed surfaces?","id":"supported-reading-sequence-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Where do rulings, changes of orientation or discontinuities require separate reading sequences or alternative continuations?","id":"supported-reading-sequence-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"sign-function-in-context","name":"Sign function in context","description":"Determine what role a sign plays in its passage before assigning a linguistic value.","findings":[{"id":"functional-classification","name":"Functional classification","description":"Record whether a sign is being treated as phonetic, logographic, determinative, numerical, metrological or otherwise functional, where those distinctions apply.","questions":[{"text":"Which contextual evidence supports the proposed function of this sign in the identified tradition?","id":"functional-classification-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"For a proposed numerical or metrological expression, which notation and unit conventions must be established before calculating a quantity?","id":"functional-classification-q02","kind":"action"}]}]}]},{"id":"readings-and-interpretation","name":"Readings and interpretation","description":"Connect sign identities to language-dependent readings and passage interpretations through explicit evidence.","layers":[{"id":"language-and-sign-values","name":"Language and sign values","description":"Assess candidate languages and the values signs may have within them.","findings":[{"id":"contextual-reading-candidates","name":"Contextual reading candidates","description":"Retain competing values where graphic, grammatical or lexical evidence does not select a single reading.","questions":[{"text":"What linguistic evidence supports the language assignment independently of the script identification?","id":"contextual-reading-candidates-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Which candidate sign values fit the local spelling and grammatical context, and which alternatives remain unresolved?","id":"contextual-reading-candidates-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"transliteration-and-restoration","name":"Transliteration and restoration","description":"Keep visible text, editorial representation and inferred missing text distinguishable.","findings":[{"id":"evidence-linked-transliteration","name":"Evidence-linked transliteration","description":"Connect each transliterated or restored element to its location, editorial convention and justification.","questions":[{"text":"Which transliteration elements represent visible signs, uncertain identifications, supplied signs or unresolved gaps, under which conventions?","id":"evidence-linked-transliteration-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"What examined parallel or linguistic constraint supports each restoration, and is that support sufficient to use it in a translation?","id":"evidence-linked-transliteration-q02","kind":"action"}]}]}]},{"id":"witnesses-and-reading-readiness","name":"Witnesses and reading readiness","description":"Assess whether available representations support a reading and how that reading relates to other witnesses.","layers":[{"id":"observation-quality","name":"Observation quality","description":"Distinguish missing inscriptional evidence from limitations of the available representation.","findings":[{"id":"legibility-and-next-observation","name":"Legibility and next observation","description":"Locate ambiguous wedges and identify the observation most likely to resolve them.","questions":[{"text":"For each uncertain sign, does the limitation arise from surface loss, an obscured impression, image lighting, viewing angle or conflicting copies?","id":"legibility-and-next-observation-q01","kind":"measurement"},{"text":"Which targeted image, three-dimensional view or specialist collation could resolve the specific competing readings?","id":"legibility-and-next-observation-q02","kind":"action"}]}]},{"id":"witness-and-encoding-correspondence","name":"Witness and encoding correspondence","description":"Control comparisons between inscriptions, editions and digital representations.","findings":[{"id":"preserved-and-lost-distinctions","name":"Preserved and lost distinctions","description":"Record whether aligned passages and encoded signs preserve the distinctions required by the intended use.","questions":[{"text":"Are compared records separate ancient witnesses, reproductions of one inscription or derivative editions, and what establishes that relationship?","id":"preserved-and-lost-distinctions-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Which graphic variants, uncertain signs or editorial distinctions would be lost by the proposed character encoding or normalised transcription?","id":"preserved-and-lost-distinctions-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"evidence-and-external-alignment","name":"Evidence and external alignment","description":"What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.","layers":[{"id":"reported-evidence","name":"Reported evidence","description":"Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.","findings":[{"id":"evidence-kinds","name":"Kinds and varieties","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of cuneiform this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-kinds-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-identifiers","name":"Identifiers and schemes","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of cuneiform this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-identifiers-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-standards-and-regulation","name":"Standards and regulation","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of cuneiform this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-real-world-use","name":"Real-world use","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of cuneiform this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-real-world-use-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-measurements","name":"Typical measurements","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of cuneiform this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-measurements-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards","name":"Failure modes and hazards","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of cuneiform this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-regional-variation","name":"Regional variation","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of cuneiform this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-regional-variation-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-neighbours","name":"Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of cuneiform this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-neighbours-q01","kind":"provenance"}]}]}]}]},"agentConduct":{"may":["Transliterate and describe cuneiform texts from published editions, citing them.","Catalogue tablets with museum numbers, provenance and condition."],"mustNot":["Help trade in tablets that lack documented legal provenance.","Present a reading or translation as certain when scholars dispute it.","Handle, clean or bake original tablets without conservators.","Invent texts or attribute them to collections that do not hold them."],"requiresHuman":["Accepting a tablet into a collection or sale.","Repatriation decisions about tablets."]},"ethics":{"considerations":["Looting of sites in Iraq and Syria has fed an illicit trade in tablets.","These texts are the heritage of the peoples of the region today."],"affectedParties":["Source countries and their communities","Museums and scholars","Buyers deceived by forgeries"]},"owners":{"steward":"The holding museum or state; ownership of looted tablets is governed by cultural property law.","roles":[],"masterSystems":["Museum collection databases","Cuneiform text corpora"]},"relations":[{"target":"Q29517555","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"},{"target":"Q3953107","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"}],"interaction":{"identity":{"applicability":"required","items":["Vercy registry: vr.tr.cuneiform","Wikidata: Q401 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q401)"]},"properties":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":["Cuneiform identification status: unassessed | candidate | supported | disputed | rejected, with evidence","Cuneiform tradition: Named tradition or competing assignments, with period and regional qualifications where supported","Sign-system organisation: logosyllabic | alphabetic | other specified | unresolved","Language association: Text or passage linked to one or more candidate languages, with supporting evidence","Graphic execution: impressed | incised | painted or drawn | digitally rendered | other | unresolved","Reading order: Supported or alternative sequences linking signs, lines, columns and inscribed surfaces","Sign legibility: clear | partial | ambiguous | lost | inaccessible in available evidence, assessed by location","Readable sign proportion: Percentage of assessable sign positions under a stated counting method; unknown when positions cannot be established","Interpretive support: observed | proposed | independently corroborated | contested, separately for sign identity, value and passage interpretation"]},"recognition":{"applicability":"optional","items":["Wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay tablets, cones or cylinders.","Signs arranged in lines, sometimes on both faces and edges of a tablet."]},"capabilities":{"applicability":"required","items":["Identify candidate cuneiform passages and request targeted examination of diagnostically useful wedges.","Compare sign forms against explicitly identified sign lists and securely attributed parallels.","Produce evidence-linked sign identifications and transliterations while preserving alternative readings.","Assess whether language identification or translation is sufficiently supported to proceed.","Align corresponding passages across witnesses without erasing graphic or textual differences.","Prepare a digital representation that distinguishes surviving marks, uncertain readings and editorial restorations."]},"hazards":{"applicability":"required","items":["Loss of context and meaning when tablets are looted from sites.","Forged tablets entering the market.","Unbaked clay crumbling from damp or careless handling."]},"interfaces":{"applicability":"required","items":["The Unicode Standard, cuneiform blocks, Unicode Consortium.","Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, 1970, UNESCO."]},"context":{"applicability":"required","items":["Cuneiform is encountered on ancient tablets, inscriptions, seals and other artifacts from Mesopotamia and neighboring regions.","It recorded administration, trade, law, correspondence, literature and religious learning in several languages.","Researchers use it to reconstruct ancient societies while distinguishing the writing system from the language of an individual text."]}},"sources":[{"title":"The Unicode Standard, Core Specification - Cuneiform, Cuneiform Numbers and Punctuation, Early Dynastic Cuneiform","url":"https://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/","note":"Official encoding of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform as three Unicode blocks (U+12000-U+123FF, U+12400-U+1247F, U+12480-U+1254F) and the distinction of that script from Ugaritic and Old Persian."},{"title":"ISO 15924 - Codes for the representation of names of scripts","url":"https://www.unicode.org/iso15924/iso15924-codes.html","note":"Script identifiers Xsux (Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform), Xpeo (Old Persian), Ugar (Ugaritic) as the standard names under which cuneiform varieties are catalogued in IT and bibliographic systems."},{"title":"Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI)","url":"https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/","note":"The principal public catalogue of cuneiform artifacts (P-numbers), periodization, provenience, and the practical distinction of tablet vs. other object types used by museums and Assyriologists."},{"title":"Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC)","url":"https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/","note":"Language- and project-level corpora (Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, etc.), lemmatization practice, and how the writing system is used as a research object rather than a single 'font'."},{"title":"Wikidata item Q401: cuneiform","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q401","note":"identity and sense of the item"},{"title":"Wikipedia: Cuneiform","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform","note":"general description of the item"}],"openQuestions":["Does the registry intend cuneiform to encompass all traditions conventionally described by that term, including alphabetic traditions, or a narrower family?","Which sign lists and editorial conventions should be accepted for each included tradition, and how should incompatible identifiers be reconciled?","What evidence threshold should distinguish supported cuneiform identification from a merely wedge-like candidate or imitation?","How should tradition-specific numerical and metrological conventions be divided between this model and neighbouring quantity or notation models?","Which digital representations preserve the graphic distinctions needed for the intended agent tasks, and when must an image or three-dimensional witness remain essential?"],"resources":{"spec":"/models/things/publications/thing-q401/spec.json"},"provenance":{"origin":"thing registry research (pass 2)","builtFrom":["models/things/publications/thing-q401/spec.json"],"providers":["Codex","Grok"],"researchStatus":"unreviewed","generatedAt":"2026-09-07T10:05:24Z","builder":"tools/build_cards.py@1.0.0"},"completeness":{"sections":{"classifiers":"filled","whatItIs":"filled","purpose":"filled","distinguishingFeatures":"filled","structure":"filled","agentConduct":"filled","ethics":"filled","owners":"filled","relations":"filled","interaction.identity":"filled","interaction.properties":"not-applicable","interaction.recognition":"filled","interaction.capabilities":"filled","interaction.hazards":"filled","interaction.interfaces":"filled","interaction.context":"filled","sources":"filled"},"notes":{"_gate":"Published through the thing publication gate 1.0 on 2026-10-07T10:10:30+00:00: completeness 1.00; sense: Wikidata description; 5 live sources; review by codex: pass","interaction.properties":"Plane INF: no invented physical properties."},"score":1.0}}