300px, left, Cuneiform sign for ri, re, dal, tal, ṭal, and as Sumerogram RI, (sign uses from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'').">Epic_of_Gilgamesh.html" ;"title="Sumerogram RI, (sign uses from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh">Sumerogram RI, (sign uses from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''). File:Amarna letter mp3h8878.jpg">315px, Amarna letter EA 365-(''Reverse''), Biridiya to Pharaoh, ''"Furnishing Corvée">Biridiya.html" ;"title="Amarna letter EA 365-(''Reverse''), Biridiya">Amarna letter EA 365-(''Reverse''), Biridiya to Pharaoh, ''"Furnishing te-ir (cuneiform)">er-ri-šu-na (cuneiform)">na), 3rd character, 6th line from top (line 365:20).
(high resolution, expandible photo) The cuneiform Ri sign, or Re, is found in both the 14th-century BC Amarna letters and the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...

''; it is in the top 25 most used cuneiform signs (Buccellati, 1979) for ''ri'', or ''re'', but has other syllabic or alphabetic uses, as well as the

Sumerogram A Sumerogram is the use of a Sumerian cuneiform character or group of characters as an ideogram or logogram rather than a syllabogram in the graphic representation of a language other than Sumerian, such as Akkadian, Eblaite, or Hittite. Th ...

usage for ''RI'' (''Epic of Gilgamesh''). The ri (cuneiform) sign has the following uses in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'': :dal :re :ri :tal :ṭal :RI (

usage) The specific usage numbers for the sign's meaning in the Epic is as follows: ''dal''-(4), ''re''-(56), ''ri''-(372), ''tal''-(70), ''ṭal''-(2), ''RI''-(1). In the Amarna letters, ''ri'' also has a special usage when coupled with the naming of the Pharaoh, as "LUGAL-Ri". Lugal is the

translated in the

Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218–280 was an East Semitic language that is attested ...

to 'King', ''Sarru''. Thus in the Amarna letters, Lugal is used as a stand-alone, but sometimes supplemented with ''Ri'', and specifically used as Sumerogram ''SÀR'' (an equivalent Sumerogram to mean LUGAL) to be combined with ''RI'' to make ''sarru'' for king. ('The King', as an appellation is sometimes created by adding ma (cuneiform), suffix to the end of a name (Lugal-ma.)

References

* Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, ) * Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian

'', Parpola, Simo,

Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project is an international scholarly project aimed at collecting and publishing ancient Assyrian texts of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and studies based on them. Its headquarters are in Helsinki in Finland. State Archives ...

, c 1997, Tablet I thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages. *Ugarit Forschungen (Neukirchen-Vluyn). UF-11 (1979) honors

Claude Schaeffer Claude may refer to: People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Callegari (1962–2021), English Arsenal supporter * Claude Debussy (1862–1918) ...

, with about 100 articles in 900 pages. pp 95, ff, "Comparative Graphemic Analysis of

Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Enc ...

and Western Akkadian", author Giorgio Buccellati, ( i.e. Ugarit and

Amarna Amarna (; ) is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the ruins of Akhetaten, the capital city during the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and a ...

(letters), three others, Mari, OB,Royal, OB,non-Royal letters). Cuneiform signs