Automated Image Matching and New Readings for Cyrus the Great's 547 BC Campaign in the Nabonidus Chronicle (BM 35382 = ABC 7)

Abstract

This article introduces an automated image matching technique called Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) as a tool to supplement the collation of problematic cuneiform signs. The Nabonidus Chronicle (II, 16), which records a campaign of Cyrus the Great during the ninth regnal year of Nabonidus (547 BC), provides the test case. The name of the land targeted in this campaign has been controversial because the signs rendering the name of this land are very hard to read. SIFT results support two possible readings: The Land of the Suteans or Lydia.