From Stephen Tinney <stinney@sas.upenn.edu>:linebreak==========================linebreaklinebreakThe Babylonian Section of the Penn Museum invites applications from Post-Doctoral researchers for two positions on the project Tablet to Translation.linebreaklinebreakTablet to Translation (T2T) is a new, gift-funded, three-year project to advance the state of the art in machine reading of original clay manuscripts written in Sumerian cuneiform and machine translation of Sumerian. The initial phases of the project will work on creating resources for machine translation (MT) as well as carrying out systematic testing and evaluation of modern MT approaches. Another branch of our work will involve conservation, digitization, and sign-recognition experiments with the remaining unpublished Ur III administrative fragments currently held in the Penn Museum.linebreaklinebreakT2T will work on building/improving translation resources in several ways: creating a database of commodities and translations for the Ur III administrative corpus; producing a reference set of translations of Ur III court records, letters, and contracts; and reviewing, updating, and augmenting existing translations of Old Babylonian Sumerian non-administrative texts of all genres. Time permitting, the project may also apply similar approaches to the Early Dynastic IIIb administrative corpus. All of this work will also be coordinated with the electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary and be utilized by that project.linebreaklinebreakThe Post-Docs will work on all Sumerological aspects of the project (a project programmer will be hired for the start of the second year). The responsibilities will include reviewing the secondary literature on Ur III commodities and practices to create and correct the project’s database; reviewing and reorganizing existing translations for conformance with the needs of machine translation; and creating new translations. linebreaklinebreakProject staff will work on all parts of the corpus and will participate in weekly meetings that will be part reading group and part shared problem-solving discussions. Knowledge of Sumerian is required, but applicants who do not have expertise in all areas of Sumerian but who would like to expand their knowledge are welcome to apply. In accordance with the University of Pennsylvania’s policy on Post-Docs, project staff will also have time to pursue their own research as part of their academic development.linebreaklinebreakThe ideal start date is 1 January 2027 and review of applications will begin immediately. Interested applicants must have completed the requirements for their Ph.D. before joining the project and should contact Steve Tinney (stinney@upenn.edu). linebreaklinebreakPlease include a CV and brief letter of interest clarifying the nature and extent of your previous work in Sumerian.linebreaklinebreak--- linebreak