Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 March 4

= March 4 =

Cuneiform in Wikipedia
In the entry to Inanna, the cuneiform symbol for deity has been changed into two boxes. The first character in her name looks like an 8-pointed asterisk. I believe further town the same box character has replaced other cuneiform translations from the original Wikipedia entry.

My guess is that somebody updated the server or some other computer maintenance was performed and it could not decipher the characters in question. — Preceding unsigned comment added by IloveAgentScott (talk • contribs) 19:25, 4 March 2014 (UTC)


 * This probably isn't the result of a change to the Inanna article itself or Wikipedia's servers. I suspect the problem is on your end, that those unicode characters are no longer displayed.  Were there any recent changes to your PC ? StuRat (talk) 21:18, 4 March 2014 (UTC)


 * I am curious how to see those cuneiforms. I looked up cuneiform articles here on Wikipedia after I read this above, installed some cuneiform fonts on my Windows 8.1 after and  tried to fiddle with the fonts on "internet options", but to no avail. Still only boxes. Grateful for definite articles on how to make it work on Windows 8. Star Lord  -  星王 (talk) 07:17, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

IloveAgentScott -- the first character in writing "Inanna" is a determinative, not really part of the name as such. It only has the shape of an eight-pointed asterisk in early cuneiform (File:Cuneiform sumer dingir.svg). In later conventionalized cuneiform, it looks like File:B010ellst.png. For the main character, see File:B153ellst.png (or in earlier form, File:Inannasumerianblack.png)... AnonMoos (talk) 10:35, 6 March 2014 (UTC)