# About CDLI (Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative)

> Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, 2026. 6 records on Mysteries Department cite it. CDLI's own account: collections are estimated to exceed 500,000…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHPH2QMG3/about-cdli-cuneiform-digital-library-initiative  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative 2026

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# About CDLI (Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative)

Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, 2026.

**Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian** Webpage0

## What it's used for here

CDLI's own account: collections are estimated to exceed 500,000 cuneiform exemplars; more than 400,000 (an older passage says 360,000) are catalogued electronically; about two million lines of transliteration; founded by Robert Englund (UCLA) and Jürgen Renn (MPIWG) with a first funded phase in 2000-2003. Used for the headline counts.

## Cited by on this site 6 records

[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)

Evidence

EVD

[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)

Evidence

EVD

[Robert Englund and Jürgen Renn begin the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/events/EVT0DEDPFSXT8WJ/robert-englund-and-jurgen-renn-begin-the-cuneiform-digital)

EVT

[Robert K. Englund](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/people/FIG0DEDNFAB6CHW/robert-k-englund)

FIG

[The unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)

The mystery article

MYS

[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)

Question

QST

## Cite it

```
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (2026). About CDLI (Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative). https://cdli.earth/about
```

[Find it at cdli.earth](https://cdli.earth/about)

Key

**SRC** 0DEDHPH2QMG3

Kind

Webpage

Rights

The publisher's

Kept

31 Oct 2026, for editors

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

The record

Bibliographic records are CC0. Take this one as CSL-JSON, BibTeX or RIS.

[CSL-JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHPH2QMG3/about-cdli-cuneiform-digital-library-initiative/csl.json)