Cuneiform names
Until now, there seemed to be no system in the way New Babylonian names were recorded. Thissen: "These were phrases, often 'spelled' with a verb sign. Because of the many ways of conjugating such a verb, many people now appear under different names on some of the hundreds of thousands of cuneiform tablets known from Iraq just before our era."
Tens of thousands of spellings
The system was found by collecting tens of thousands of spellings of names of famous people, sometimes "spelt" with a verb sign and sometimes with syllable spellings. These were then categorised according to dozens of possible verb conjugations.
Knowledge
Thissen: "As a result, we discovered the system used by the New Babylonian scribes. Actions of previously mislabelled people we can now assign to already known people and the system makes it easier to discover new names. In this way, we gain much more knowledge about this period."