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 KÁ, for ''gate'' is the

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 ...

logogram In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chine ...

) used in the 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 just ''KÁ'' it means "gate" or "doorway",

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 ...

, "bābu"; as "Gate-Great", KÁ.GAL for City-Gate, it is from Akkadian "abullu", ("(city) gate"). Both uses are in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Epic, it is only used as the sumerogram, a total of 19 times, (7 times for 'abullu', city gate). In the Epic, all spellings for city gate use KÁ.GAL; for gate ('bābu') only one spelling uses the alphabetic letters for b-a-b-u; the rest use KÁ along with other added cuneiform signs (KÁ-x-x, or KÁ-x, etc.).

Amarna letters

In the Amarna letters, the topic of

Amarna letter EA 296 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 a ...

, ''Under the Yoke,'' is the guarding of two cities, at the city gate; also the man authoring the letter, Yabitiri-(Yahtiru)-(governor?) of City? is called a "gatekeeper", lines 24 and 31: LÚ. PA.KÁ.ŠU, Man-Gate-"hand".

Šu (cuneiform) The cuneiform šu sign is a common, multi-use syllabic and alphabetic sign for ''šu'', ''š'', and ''u''; it has a subsidiary usage for syllabic ''qat''; it also has a majuscule-(capital letter) Sumerogram usage for ŠU, for Akkadian language ...

, (shaped like a 'hand'), has the secondary meaning besides ''šu'', for Akkadian language ''qat'', for "qātu", 'hand' (as ŠU, a sumerogram), and used for 9 of about 15 spellings of 'qātu' in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In letter EA 296, the text is as follows: (reverse side of letter)Moran, 1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters,'', EA 296, ''Under the Yoke'', pp. 338-9. :"...inquire of his commissioner whether I guard the ''city gate'' of Azzatu, and the ''city gate'' of Yapu, ...." The city gate is also discussed in the Amarna letter from

Tjaru Tjaru () was an ancient Egyptian fortress on the ''Way of Horus'' or ''Horus military road'', the major road leading out of Egypt into Canaan. It was known in Greek as Selē (), in Latin as Sile or Sele, and in Coptic as Selē or Slē (). It has ...

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. ---- File:GAL-rabu Cuneiform.svg, Cuneiform GAL, gal, (a following horizontal stroke upon

Ma (cuneiform) The cuneiform ma sign, is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. In the Epic it is also used as the Sumerogram MA, (for Akkadian language "mina", ''manû'', a weight measure, as MA.NA, or MA.NA.ÀM). ...

).
As KÁ.GAL, the GAL (great Sumerogram). Cuneiform signs Sumerograms {{Semitic-lang-stub

Amarna letters

See also

References