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 ib, (or ip) is a common-use sign in 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 ...

'', the Amarna letters, and other cuneiform texts. Its common usage is syllabic for ''ib'' (or ''ip''), or alphabetic for ''i'' or ''b''/''p''; the "i" is also exchanged for "e" when spelling specific words 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 ...

. Cuneiform ''ib'' also can be found 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 ...

''URTA'', (a capital letter (

majuscule Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally '' majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally '' minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing syste ...

)), and for example it is used in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' for the god's name:

Ninurta Ninurta (: , possible meaning "Lord fBarley"), also known as Ninĝirsu (: , meaning "Lord fGirsu"), is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was f ...

, spelled ^DNIN.URTA.

''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage

Cuneiform ''ib'' has other sub-uses in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. The following can be found: ''eb''--(4) times, ''ep''--(9), ''ib''--(114), ''ip''--(45), and ''URTA''--(4) times.

Similar cuneiform forms

The cuneiform ''ib''

character (no. 535) is built in a 'rectangular box form', sitting upon a long horizontal stroke. It contains the 2-verticals at right and 1-vertical at left. Three other signs are similarly built, cuneiform '' ur'' is the mirror image of "ib"/"ip", but with the two verticals at left. The "lu (cuneiform)" sign is identical to "ib", but instead of 1-short vertical in the center, ''lu'' contains 3-short verticals in the center. Another sign is similar to ''lu'', but has only 1-vertical, left and right, ku (cuneiform), and the Amarna letters is usually so compact, that hardly any of the individual strokes can be easily identified. Another sign is similar in this group to cuneiform '' ur'', but the center is replaced by 2 stokes, one angled down, and the other a wedge (at extreme right vertical), and is the '' gáb'' sign. In the Amarna letters it is often used for English "all", or "all (of us)",

, ''gabbu''. (Amarna letters EA 153, EA 287, EA 288, and EA 267)

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. ---- File:British Museum Room 10 cuneiform.jpg, Cuneiform ''ib''/''ip'', 7th row, middle cuneiform sign. Cuneiform signs