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 ...

''dan'' sign is a multi-use sign 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 ...

. Besides dan, (and tan), the following are its uses (from Epic of Gilgamesh): :dan :kal :lab :lap :lép :líb :líp :reb :rib :tan :GURUŠ-( GURUŠ (young man Sumerogram) 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 ...

GURUŠ, it is only used for its

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 ...

meaning "eṭlu"-("young man"). Half of the spellings of ''eṭlu'' use GURUŠ combined with other signs, and half spell ''eṭlu'' alphabetically/syllabically. The quantities used for specific meanings of the sign, in the Epic of Gilgamesh are as follows: ''dan''-(27), ''kal''-(23), ''lab''-(19), ''lap''-(3), ''lép''-(1), ''líb''-(7), ''líp''-(3), ''reb''-(7), ''rib''-(2), ''tan''-(10), ''GURUŠ''-(23).

Amarna letter use and "dan-is"

Combined with ''is'', ( is (cuneiform)), the Akkadian word dan-is, "danniš", meaning "greatly", "strongly", "fervently", etc. is used in the Amarna letters, especially from Mesopotamia, of

Mitanni Mitanni (–1260 BC), earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, ; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or in Ancient Egypt, Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian language, Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria (region), Syria an ...

(King

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 ...

), Babylon, and others. Tushratta's letter to Pharaoh, Amarna letter EA 19, ''Love and Gold'' uses many examples of ''danniš''; also from Tushratta, EA 26 and EA 28. When emphasis is being reinforced, (as in specific paragraphs of EA 19), the use is danniš-danniš. In the Amarna letters a separate Canaanite version is also used: ma-gal, ma-gal ( Amarna letter EA 364, and

Amarna letter EA 299 Amarna letter EA 299, titled: ''"A Plea for Help"'', is a fairly short clay tablet Amarna letter from ''"governor"'' Yapahu of city-state Gazru. The clay tablet surface has been partially eroded, but the cuneiform is still mostly legible. The ta ...

for example). A tripling of the ''danniš'' term is also known. The short letter Amarna letter EA 23, famous for its black-ink Egyptian

Hieratic Hieratic (; ) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BCE until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BCE ...

notation on the reverse, from Tushratta, 18 lines on obverse, and lines 19–32 on the bottom to the middle of the reverse, has a long introductory paragraph, lines 1-12. Line 12 ending the paragraph states ''"....everything-yours, strongly, strongly, strongly, 'may it be' ("šalāmu"-(at peace))."'' ("at peace" from a line previous, 'may it be', ''lu-ú'', ending lines EA 23:6, 8, 12)

dan syllabic use in the Epic of Gilgamesh

The following words use the syllabic ''dan'' as the first syllable in the word entries under ''d'' in the glossary.Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian

'', Glossary, pp. 119-145, danānu, dannatu, and danniš, dannūtu, p. 123; English, "to be strong", "hardship, difficulty", "greatlly", and "strength". 1.''danānu'', for English, ''"to be strong"''. 2.''dannatu'', ''"hardship, difficulty"''. 3.''danniš'', ''"greatlly"''. 4.''dannūtu'', ''"strength"''.

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. Cuneiform signs Akkadian language - three letter syllables