From Clay to Code: Transforming Hittite Texts for Machine Learning

AbstractThis paper presents a comprehensive method-ology for transforming XML-encoded Hittite cuneiform texts into computationally accessi-ble formats for machine learning applications. Drawing from a corpus of 8,898 texts (558,349 tokens in total) encompassing 145 cataloged genres and compositions, we develop a struc-tured approach to preserve both linguistic and philological annotations while enabling compu-tational analysis. Our methodology addresses key challenges in ancient language processing, including the handling of fragmentary texts, multiple language layers, and complex anno-tation systems. We demonstrate the applica-tion of our corpus through experiments with T5 models, achieving significant improvements in Hittite-to-German translation (ROUGE-1: 0.895) while identifying limitations in morpho-logical glossing tasks. This work establishes a standardized, machine-readable dataset in Hit-tite cuneiform, which also maintains a balance with philological accuracy and current state-of-the-art.