A team of researchers from Harvard University have analyzed the cuneiform inscriptions on tablets discovered in the ancient city of Kanesh (located in modern-day Turkey), and have built a model that they believe allows them to identify the location of Bronze Age cities in the region. Many of the 12,000 tablets discovered at Kanesh include contracts, shipment manifests and business letters detailing an intricate network of trade. By studying these, researchers discovered there were hundreds of trade interactions among 26 ancient cities from the Bronze Age, 11 of which still remain lost. They used a mathematical model, which they call a "structural gravity" model, to use information from the tablets, such as the price of goods in each city, the purpose and frequency of travel, and the distance between trading partners to estimate the location of the trade hubs. Their model accurately predicted the known location of some of the cities, while the coordinates of other cities lie hundreds of miles away from their suspected locations.
Off-site Links:
- https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.ca/2017/11/cuneiform-tablets-provide-clues-on.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/13/ancient-data-modern-math-and-the-hunt-for-11-lost-cities-of-the-bronze-age
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clay-tablets-bronze-age-assyrian-merchants-show-location-lost-cities-4000-years-a8056921.html
- http://www.newsweek.com/archaeology-assyria-cuneiform-lost-cities-map-trade-routes-711129