The

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

ru sign 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 ...

''. As ''ru'' it is used for syllabic ''ru'', and alphabetic 'r', or 'u'. In the I-XII Tablets of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', it has specific uses showing alternate renderings besides ''ru''; as sign no. 068, ''ru'', 250 times, ''šub'', 6, ''šup'', 3, and as

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 ...

''ŠUB'', 1 time. In the Amarna letters, the sign is mostly used for ''ru'', ''r'', and ''u'' in the spelling of various words. Notably, for "bird",

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 ...

"iṣṣūru", in

Amarna letter EA 28 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 ab ...

, (

Tushratta Tushratta ( Akkadian: and ) was a king of Mitanni, 1358–1335 BCE, at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and throughout the first half the reign of Akhenaten. He was the son of Shuttarna II. Tushratta stated that he was the grandson of A ...

to Pharaoh), titled ''"Messengers Detained and a Protest"''; the messengers are referenced as "uncaged" birds, and "aren't they free to come and go as birds do?". The scribal rendering of the ru sign is dramatically different in some of the Amarna letters. In

Amarna letter EA 15 Amarna (; ) is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the ruins of Akhetaten, the capital city during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of ...

, Assur-uballit I of

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

to Pharaoh, and Amarna letter 28, (using bird, "iṣṣūru") it appears as the standard, electronic rendition. The alternate rendition of the sign as shown in

Amarna letter EA 364 Amarna letter EA 364, titled ''Justified War,'' is a clay tablet letter from Ayyab, ruler of Aštartu, to Pharaoh Akhenaten (1350s–1330s BC). It is one of the Amarna letters, 382 in total, dating from Amarna letters#Chronology, c. 1360 – c. ...

is also found twice in the mid-length (to long) 69-line Amarna letter EA 362,

Rib-Hadda Rib-Hadda (also rendered Rib-Addi, Rib-Addu, Rib-Adda) was king of Byblos during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters all to Akhenaten. His name is Akkadian in form and may invoke the Northwest Se ...

to Pharaoh, used as "to send" (a letter/message), line 52, "aš-pu-ru", Akkadian "šapāru". Another example letter of usage, is for one line, Line 27 on the obverse of

Amarna letter EA 147 Amarna letter EA 147, titled ''A Hymn to the Pharaoh'', is a moderate length clay tablet Amarna letter (mid 14th century BC) from Abimilku of Tyre-(called ''Ṣurru'' in the Abimilku letters, and an island, until the time of Alexander the Great, 3 ...

, Biridiya to Pharaoh, titled ''"A Hymn to the Pharaoh"'', a letter in pristine condition (minus a missing corner of the

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian language, Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay t ...

). Of note, in the

, using vowels ''a, e, i,'' and ''u'', there is no "o", (or y as vowel). Any vowels used in a sign, can be interchangeably substituted for a different vowel. Also

u (cuneiform) The cuneiform U sign is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. It can be used for the alphabetic ''u'', instead of the more common 2nd u, (ú). It has two other uses, commonly. It can be used for th ...

has special uses, and is only rarely used for the 'vowel u'. The

ú (cuneiform) The cuneiform sign ú is a common-use sign of the Amarna letters, the ''Epic of Gilgamesh,'' and other cuneiform texts (for example Hittite texts). It has a secondary sub-use in the Epic of Gilgamesh for šam. Linguistically, it has the alph ...

-(first prime) is the typical alphabetic 'u'.

Aziru, of Amurru

Aziru was allowed to leave Egypt and return to his kingdom of Amurru. Aziru had, however, made secret contacts with the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I, and sometime upon his return to Amurru, he permanently switched his allegiance to the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

to whom he remained loyal until his death. Henceforth, Amurru remained firmly in Hittite hands until the reign of the 19th dynasty Pharaohs

Seti I Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek language, Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdom period, ruling or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and th ...

and

Ramesses II Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...

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. * Rainey, 1970. ''El Amarna Tablets, 359-379,'' Anson F. Rainey, (AOAT 8, ''Alter Orient Altes Testament 8'', Kevelaer and Neukirchen -Vluyen), 1970, 107 pages. Cuneiform signs