The following was published in UChicago News on Nov. 7, 2024.

By Claire Levin

Editor’s note: This story is part of Meet a UChicagoan, a regular series focusing on the people who make UChicago a distinct intellectual community. Read about the others here.

In the half-dark of a third-floor office, Danielle Levy lifted a clay tablet out of its box. Carefully examining it with gloved hands, she explained how 3,500 years ago, a student in the ancient city of Nippur had copied a teacher’s cuneiform script—and smudged any mistakes smooth with their fingertips.

Ancient objects each tell their own unique stories, the University of Chicago undergraduate has learned. Through her work on Akkadian—the language of ancient Babylonia—the fourth-year student has discovered her passion for uncovering and sharing its unique history.

Levy’s coursework in the renowned Core curriculum sparked an interest that led to an internship at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, photographing its expansive collection of ancient cuneiform tablets. It also inspired her desire to make the Akkadian language and Babylonian history accessible for all, which Levy has achieved through her photography and research at ISAC—and the creation of a popular plush toy: a cuneiform tablet named Tuppi.

“Object-centered work is just a different level of cool, and I’m so grateful that I can do that with my job,” Levy said. “I definitely want, going forward, to not only analyze literature, but to really look at the relics and objects that accompany these stories so that I can learn more about the people themselves.”

‘I couldn’t believe how cool these tablets looked’

In the summer after her first year, Levy began searching courses to fulfill her language requirement, as part of UChicago’s Core curriculum. She encountered completely unfamiliar languages on the extensive list of options.

“What’s Akkadian?” she wondered, typing the novel word into Google. A quick search revealed that the language spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. Akkadian was written logographic and syllabic, meaning that its symbols contained semantic meaning—much like the Mandarin Chinese Levy studied in high school. Not only that, but The Epic of Gilgamesh, which she had read the previous year, was written in Akkadian.

“I looked up pictures of the cuneiform,” Levy said. “And I couldn’t believe how cool these tablets looked. I was attracted to the novelty of it, and I wanted to be able to read Gilgamesh in its original language.”

Levy began taking Akkadian with Susanne Paulus, an associate professor of Assyriology and curator of ISAC's collection of thousands of cuneiform tablets. At the same time, she took another class with Paulus on Mesopotamian thought and literature as part of the Core’s Civilizations sequence.

“I wanted to know about the culture of the people who used this language I was studying,” Levy said. “I was particularly interested in the lived experiences of the women during this time period.” 

During class, Paulus mentioned an opportunity: an opening for a student research assistant to help photograph tablets and help research for the special exhibition “Back to School in Babylonia.” The exhibit explored how students in Nippur, a Mesopotamian city in present-day Iraq, learned to read and write the Akkadian and Sumerian languages.

Paulus, who studies ancient economic exchanges, said Levy has greatly help making these tablets legible through her photography and her extensive work on the ISAC’s exhibition merchandise.

“She brings her enthusiasm and aesthetic perspective to the group,” Paulus said. “On our team, everyone comes with a different passion and perspective, and no one else thinks of women in religion quite like Dani.”

When class is applied

At first, when Levy began photographing the tablets, she didn’t know how to read them. In the first few Akkadian classes that Levy took, she’d learned to read using paper hand copies, on which the signs are more immediately visible. But one day, Levy said Paulus stopped into her office on her way out the door.

“She looked and said: ‘You can read this.’ I couldn’t believe it, but then she was crouching down next to me, asking me: ‘What is this sign? Or this one?’ and I was shocked that I was really reading directly from the tablet for the first time. It was a letter from some royal to another and for the first time, I could understand it,” Levy said.

The hundreds of photographs that Levy took were sent to researchers who were able to read them clearly because of the high definition that she achieved. They were also included in the companion book for the ISAC exhibition entitled, “Back to School in Babylonia.” Levy’s research has even helped uncover information about the lives of young, Babylonian scribes as they went about their studies.

For example, in an essay Levy wrote for the exhibition catalog, she helped demonstrate the age of Babylonian scribal students when they began school. Levy cited a dental expert sourced by the University of Pennsylvania, who analyzed the bite mark presumably left by a student in one tablet and concluded that the child was about 12 years old when he bit the clay. She similarly cited ISAC researcher and Asst. Prof. Jana Matuszak, who matched the contents of the tablet to the curriculum of students at around the conclusion of their first year of study. This combined evidence helped Levy conclude that wealthy children in Babylonia likely began their scribal study around the age of 11.

As Levy’s knowledge of Akkadian grew, so too did her desire to make the topic accessible to all ages. When Paulus asked Levy to help brainstorm merchandise for the exhibition, Levy suggested an idea for a plushie—inspired by her own love of Squishmallows. With the encouragement of Paulus, Levy began the first sketches for “Tuppi”—a stuffed toy replica of a cuneiform tablet.

“I was at a restaurant with my boyfriend, and I drew the first Tuppi on a napkin,” Levy said. “It was adorable, and soon I was copying my Akkadian homework exercises onto the drawings for the words on the draft tablet.”

Paulus supported her idea, encouraging Levy to present her idea to the larger board. For her business pitch, and ultimately her design of the toy, Levy learned design software and marketing skills, making every choice from the “cutest blush” to apply to what phrase would eventually be printed on the toy.

Ultimately, Tuppi, whose name translates to “my tablet” in Akkadian, was adorned with the following Sumerian riddle: “...One enters it blind and leaves it seeing.” The answer to the riddle is “the scribal school.”

Tuppi has since become a popular item at ISAC, embraced by patrons of the museum and others in the Assyriology field alike. Paulus described excitedly a conference at ISAC where the line of attendees waiting to buy a Tuppi toy stretched around the corner.

“Everyone wanted one,” she said. “I spot Tuppi in many offices.”

As for Levy, she looks forward to continuing her work in ancient languages. She is taking her sixth Akkadian class this fall and plans to pursue a Ph.D. examining religious origin stories.

“I didn’t see how important understanding the ancient world would be to getting a sense of how our world works now,” Levy said. “But now I do.”

—Levy’s work as a student research assistant was funded through UChicago’s College Center for Research and Fellowships.