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 ...

sign šum is a common-use sign of the Amarna letters, 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 ...

,'' and other cuneiform texts (for example Hittite texts). Linguistically, it has a syllabic usage for ''šum'', as well as for ''tag'', ''tak'', and ''taq''. It can also be used alphabetically for ''š, m, t, g, k, or q'', and also as a replacement for the four vowels, of ''a'', or ''e'', or ''i'', or ''u''.

''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage

The ''šum'' sign usage in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' is as follows: (''šum'', 34 times, ''tag'', 2, ''tak'', 23, and ''taq'', 7 times).

Amarna letters usage

A common usage of the šum cuneiform in the Amarna letters is for the Akkadian word šumma, (), for English ''if''. In the letters the strife with the Habiru, taking over cities, (

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

s), the reference is, ''"If the

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

doesn't send the archer force, our town is lost!"''.

Gallery

References

{{reflist * 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, Cuneiform signs