# 500,000+ survive; under half transliterated

> Still possible: About 500,000 to 550,000 inscribed objects survive, more than 400,000 are catalogued, and transliterations exist for well under half of…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DEEANK5JS75/500-000-survive-under-half-transliterated  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)[How many cuneiform tablets survive, and what share has been published or transliterated?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT2T64VQB/how-many-cuneiform-tablets-survive-and-what-share-has-been)Answer

Answer · Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian

# 500,000+ survive; under half transliterated

About 500,000 to 550,000 inscribed objects survive, more than 400,000 are catalogued, and transliterations exist for well under half of them.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** One piece of evidence for, none against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- A CDLI-dump tabulation shows ATF for fewer than half of catalogued artifacts, concentrated in Ur III and Neo-Assyrian material.

## What would rule it out

- The tabulation shows transliterations for more than half of catalogued artifacts.

## Evidence 1 for · none against

[CDLI estimates more than 500,000 exemplars and has catalogued more than 400,000; York's 2026 figure is above 550,000…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEEB0X4E2DT/cdli-estimates-more-than-500-000-exemplars-and-has)

Supported

FOR

[The share transliterated across the whole corpus has not been measured; "under half" is inferred from CDLI's two…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEEB1N3ZD1T/the-share-transliterated-across-the-whole-corpus-has-not)

Speculative

NEUTRAL

## The questions it answers

[How many cuneiform tablets survive, and what share has been published or transliterated?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT2T64VQB/how-many-cuneiform-tablets-survive-and-what-share-has-been)

OpenNo answer ahead yet

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). 500,000+ survive; under half transliterated [Answer ANS0DEEANK5JS75]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEEANK5JS75
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEEANK5JS75

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

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