Ur (cuneiform)

The cuneiform sign ur (𒌨) is a common-use sign in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Amarna letters, and other cuneiform texts. It has multiple sub-uses in the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as use for the Sumerogram (capital letter (majuscule)), UR. In the Epic, UR is used to spell Akkadian language barbaru, "wolf", as UR.BAR.RA (in Tablet VI, and Tablet XI).[1]

Cuneiform sign ur
Use of the character in writing the name Jerusalem.

Cuneiform ur is a syllabic for "ur", and an alphabetic for "u", or "r". In the Amarna letters, usage is sumerogrammic for English language "dog", spelled either UR.KI, or UR.KU,[2] but the 'dog' reference can be found in many Amarna letters.

The cuneiform ur cuneiform character (no. 575) is built in a 'rectangular box form', sitting upon a long horizontal stroke. It contains the 2-verticals at left and 1-vertical at right. Three other signs are similarly built, but contain 1-vertical at left, with 2-verticals at right for lu (cuneiform) (with 3-short horizontals in the center, no. 537), and the same but only 1-short horizontal at center, ib (cuneiform)(also ip, no. 535). The third similar sign, (no. 536) has 1-vertical left and right, ku (cuneiform). It also has 3-short verticals in the center, but is often such a compressed cuneiform character that individual strokes are overwritten, and difficult to identify.

Epic of Gilgamesh usage

Cuneiform ur has many sub-uses in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The following can be found: leq--(1) time, lik--(37), liq--(3), tas--(1), taṣ--(2), taš--(15), tés--(1), téš--(1), ur--(93), UR--(16) times.


gollark: It's kind of dodecahedral to go around complaining about people not understanding you (and implying it's some failure on their part) and then refusing to try explaining it in better ways.
gollark: > oh the obvious reality is that people dont know what they dont know, and even i didnt conclude that, tho i see it now. doesnt keep me from being impatient and getting madMaybe you should try explaining better if you think you have some great insight people do not understand.
gollark: My family has a pet one, but it actually just mostly sits in a rock thing in its terrarium.
gollark: Geckos are really quite cool reptiles.
gollark: Yep!

References

Citations
  1. Parpola, 197l. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Glossary, pp. 119-145, barbaru, p. 122.
  2. Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. The Amarna Letters. EA 138, note 8, p. 224, & "Index of Words", p. 377.

Bibliography
  • Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, ISBN 0-8018-6715-0)
  • Parpola, 197l. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Parpola, Simo, Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, c 1997, Tablet I thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.