More than a decade ago, Amir Harrak spent three sweltering summers in his native Iraq, photographing inscriptions written in the Classical Syriac language. The University of Toronto researcher had set out to document the centuries-old engravings, knowing many would eventually be lost.

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“If we have an inscription dating to, let’s say the second century, that – as the saying goes – is ‘in stone,’” said Colin Clarke, director of the Canadian Centre for Epigraphic Documents (CCED). “That record is frozen in time, whereas works of literature get rewritten as time goes on.”

Last November, the CCED – which is located at U of T but operates as an independent institution – opened access to a database of Syriac inscriptions, drawing from Mr. Harrak’s collection of more than 600 photographs, picturing many inscriptions from Iraq that are now damaged or lost. To document them, Mr. Harrak had spent long days cleaning and transcribing the inscriptions by hand.

Read the rest here, and visit the CCED here.

Peace,
-Steve