Computerized hittite cuneiform sign recognition and data mining application examples

In Anatolia the kingdom and empire of the Hittites had ruled nearly half a millenium during the years BC 1650-1200. It was considered one of the greatest world power of that time. Hittite language that the Hittites used is one of the oldest member of the Indo-European language family. The Hittites were one of the first communities that had adapted the concept of archive-library. The Hittites used cuneiform signs to write on various topics on wet clay tablets and baked them to be permanent and durable. The study of Hittite language grammar rules followed transliteration, transcription and translation phases manually on the Hittite cuneiform tablets. It takes a long time, it requires financial support and a special know-how and expertise for processing. It is a tedious job. Many more tablets are still waiting under and over ground to be read and translated. Being able to read the signs on cuneiform clay tablets still in Anatolia, using computer-aided techniques would be a significant contribution not only to Anatolian but also to human history. In this study, recognition of Hittite cuneiform signs is performed by using image processing techniques. Also in this study; using data mining, applications related to classification of Hittite cuneiform signs based on their geometrical features are performed.