It also lasted for a pretty long time, over 3,000 years. Researchers have found thousands of texts written in cuneiform in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages -- now, they've trained a neural network that can translate these texts into English effortlessly.

An old, mysterious language

The Akkadian language is one of the earliest known Semitic languages, a family that includes modern languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. It was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, primarily in the Akkadian Empire that was situated in the region that is today parts of Iraq and northeastern Syria. Akkadian is named after the ancient city of Akkad, one of the major centers of the Akkadian civilization.