The

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge- ...

U sign is found in both the 14th century BC

Amarna letters The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between ...

and the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...

''. 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 the number 10 (especially the Amarna letters from Tushratta of

Mitanni Mitanni (; Hittite cuneiform ; ''Mittani'' '), c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat (''Hanikalbat'', ''Khanigalbat'', cuneiform ') in Assyrian records, or '' Naharin'' ...

, or Burna-Buriash II the king of Babylon), but its probable greater use is for the conjunction, ''u'', with any of the conjunction meanings: ''and'', ''but'', ''else'', etc. Of the three u's, by graphemic analysis (Buccellati, 1979), the commonness is as follows: : Ù (cuneiform), conjunction only (but also rare, for alphabetic "u") :

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 ...

, alphabetic 'u' :u (cuneiform), alphabetic (minor), 10, conjunction (highest use) Both Ù (cuneiform) and ú are in the top 25 most used signs, but E (cuneiform) and "u (cuneiform)" are not; other vowels (or combination) in the 25 are:

a (cuneiform) The cuneiform sign 𒀀 ( DIŠ, DIŠ OVER DIŠ) for a, and in the '' Epic of Gilgamesh'' the sumerogram A, Akkadian for ''mû'', "water", which is used in the ''Gilgamesh flood myth'', Chapter XI of the Epic, or other passages. The sign is ...

, i (cuneiform), and ia (cuneiform), (which has a secondary use as suffix, ''"-mine"'', or ''"my"'', thus in top 25 most used signs). Suffix ''"iYa"'' is used in the Middle East\Southwest Asia at present day to end placenames, or other names: "My Xxxxx".

Amarna letters uses

The use of ''u'' for numeral 10 has been explained above. It is used in the letters from Tushratta, speaking of the ancestral relations with former father kings: ''...my father loved your father (the Pharaoh) 10 times more, and I have 10 times more love now. May our relations... be forever "inter-related".'' (

Amarna letter EA 19 Amarna letter EA 19 is a tall clay tablet letter of 13 paragraphs, in relatively pristine condition, with some minor flaws on the clay, but a complete enough story that some included words can complete the story of the letter. Entitled "Love and G ...

, 2nd paragraph, setting up the letter of a 13 paragraph letter, topics about daughter for Pharaoh's wife, love, gold, etc.)

Amarna letter EA 252 Amarna letter EA 252, titled: ''Sparing One's Enemies,'' is a square, mostly flat clay tablet letter written on both sides, and the bottom edge. Each text line was written with a horizontal line scribed below the text line, as well as a vertical ...

Labaya Labaya (also transliterated as Labayu or Lib'ayu) was a 14th-century BCE ruler or warlord in the central hill country of southern Canaan. He lived contemporaneously with Pharaoh Akhenaten. Labaya is mentioned in several of the Amarna Letters (abbr ...

to Pharaoh, titled: ''Sparing One's Enemies'', explains his actions in defending 'his position', after cities have been overtaken. He states in idiomatic iconography: ''"....my parts are eaten!..(''.''U''.'')And..I am slandered!''. He continues in parable form: ''".....if an ant is attacked (pinched), should it just sit (take it), or bite (the) hand back!?"....'' He continues to then discuss the men who have taken a city, (and a cult statue), and defends his past, and future actions.

Partial list of signs beginning with wedge (u)

Partial list of signs beginning with ''u'', from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' (Parpola, 1971), and the Amarna letters: * Cuneiform-u--Sign No. 1----(conjunction use, and "10"; occasionally for ''u'') * Cuneiform- AMAR, ṣur, zur--Sign No. 2---;

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 or Hittite. Sumerograms are n ...

: '' See!-(AMAR)'' (Akkadian, "amāru")-(''Note: minus the vertical stroke'') * Cuneiform- di--Sign No. 3--- * Cuneiform- ki--Sign No. 4--- * Cuneiform- mi-(Sign 5) * Cuneiform- ši, lim, or IGI ("in 'face' of", "before"

)--Sign No. 6-----(Abdi-Ashirta), Abdi- A- Ši- iR- Ta, (wedge-sign, 4th sign) * Cuneiform-u--Sign No. u-1--- * Cuneiform- ú--Sign No. u-2----(approximate: ''only 3 verticals'' for ú, (the common alphabetic u)) * Cuneiform- Ù-(u-3)--Sign No. 7--- ** (With an added horizontal, ,after the left vertical) Also: * Cuneiform- ar, ( Shuwardata of

Amarna letter EA 282 Amarna letter EA 282 is a relatively short ovate clay tablet Amarna letter, located in the British Museum, no. 29851. The letter contains only 16 lines of cuneiform text, in Akkadian, with lines 12 to 16 covering half of the tablet's reverse. Of ...

) * Cuneiform- nim-(''nem, nim, num'', and

s NIM, NUM) ( EA 34)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Buccellati, Giorgio, (Ugarit-Forschungen 11, 1979). ''Comparative Graphemic Analysis of

Old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...

Babylonian and Western Akkadian'', pp. 95–100. *

Moran, William L. William Lambert Moran (August 11, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American Assyriologist. He was born in Chicago, United States. In 1939, Moran joined the Jesuit order. He then attended Loyola University in Chicago, where he received hi ...

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 and studies based on them. Its headquarters are in Helsinki in Finland. State Archives of Assyria State Archives ...

, c 1997, Tablet I through Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages. *Ugarit Forschungen (Neukirchen-Vluyn). UF-11 (1979) honors Claude Schaeffer, with about 100 articles in 900 pages. pp 95, ff, "Comparative Graphemic Analysis of Old Babylonian and Western Akkadian", author Giorgio Buccellati, ( i.e. Ugarit and

Amarna Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Ph ...

(letters), three others, Mari, OB,Royal, OB,non-Royal letters). ---- File:C+B-Assyria-CuneiformImage12.PNG, (minus a short "horizontal stroke" right of large "wedge-stroke")
Most common of the u's: 3rd u, Ù (cuneiform), conjunction for And, but, else, etc. File:Tablet Zimri-Lim Louvre AO20161.jpg, Line 3, left
(example) Ù (cuneiform)
3rd U: conjunction for And, but, else, etc. Cuneiform signs

Amarna letters uses

Partial list of signs beginning with wedge (u)

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography