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 wedg ...

MEŠ, or meš is a plural form attached at the end of Mesopotamian cuneiform words as a suffix. As part of a name (PN, personal name, or other), or major class being referenced, in capital letters (a

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 no ...

form), it is typically separated from other capital letter Sumerograms with a period. The name of the group can follow, in lower case letters, for example: (men-massu, Amarna letter EA 365), LÚ.MEŠ– ma- as-sà-meš, (and using a secondary suffix meš, not being typical). The MEŠ cuneiform is a vertical stroke, followed by three or four angled smaller wedge-strokes. The strokes can also be "not angled", but 45 degree wedges, smaller, or large. For example, Amarna letter EA 161,

Aziru Aziru was the Canaanite ruler of Amurru, modern Lebanon, in the 14th century BC. He was the son of Abdi-Ashirta, the previous Egyptian vassal of Amurru and a direct contemporary of Akhenaten. The dealings of Aziru are well-known from the Amarna ...

to Pharaoh, shows a series of six preparation items listed sequentially. The following wedges (on the meš or Sumerogram .MEŠ wedges, are large, and the

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

has a scribing base line, that follows the vertical stroke, a baseline on which the wedges are placed sequentially. EA 161 shows the baseline 'remainder', extending beyond the last 3rd, or 4th wedge. Another common plural in the Amarna letters is HI. A, , found in personal names (

Abdi-Heba Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was a local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period (mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. Whether Abdi-Heba was himself of Hurrian d ...

), and the plural.

Usage, Amarna letters and Epic of Gilgamesh

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, (Tablets I-XII) the ''meš'' sign is used as follows: as ''meš'', 8 times, as ''MEŠ'', 253 times. In the Amarna letters, the ''meš'' sign is often referencing people, or types of people, but another common usage is KUR.MEŠ, since "land", or regions are often being discussed by the 'governors' of the

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 since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

s (called the 'man' of the city, typically).

Meš, as cuneiform "Me", + cuneiform "Eš"

The ''meš'' sign can be considered to be 1.-- me (cuneiform). .(the horizontal "baseline"), 2.--with 3 vertical wedges., (

eš (cuneiform) Eš (german: Esche) is a municipality and village in Pelhřimov District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 70 inhabitants. Eš lies approximately west of Pelhřimov, west of Jihlava, and south-east of Prague Prag ...

). A specific deviation from the standard can be seen in EA 153 (EA 153, Metropolitan Museu

, where five uses of ''meš'', are based on only 1-wedge, (or a ligatured 2-wedges); it looks approximately as follows for one wedge, They are used for ''army^meš'', as ERIM (army Sumerogram), ERIM. MEŠ (EA 153:8, 11), also ''"men"'',

LÚ The cuneiform sign LÚ () is the sign used for "man"; its complement is the symbol for woman: '' šal'' (). Cuneiform ''LÚ'', (or ''lú'' as rendered in some texts) is found as a Sumerogram in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. It also has a commo ...

. MEŠ (EA 153:9), ''feet'' (EA 153:3), and ''ships'' (EA 153:10).

Meš, 2-basic styles

Two basic types of ''meš'' signs are either expressed as wedges laid horizontally, following the vertical stroke, or wedges expressed at an angle, at any level of angle, upward, but all of consistent size. As wedges inscribed on a horizontal baseline, the wedges are usually centered, following the large vertical stroke; the horizontal baseline is not always exactly at the midpoint of the vertical stroke. The following wedges are either full-size, (or sometimes oversized); the wedges are also sometimes any percentage less than a full 3/4-wedge, or 1/2-wedge. Angled wedges are often much smaller expressed wedges, from 1/2 to 1/3? size. For space considerations, the angled wedges can be extremely high-angled, towards vertical, thus saving "horizontal text space"; alternatively, the wedges could be spaced out, allowing for the consumption of more 'line-text-space'. One example Amarna letter is a combination of the two ''horizontal'', and ''angled wedge'' expressions. EA 153 has the "meš" sign built upon the vertical stroke, then ''1-horizontal'', and ''2-angled strokes'', laid across it at approximately 45 degrees. (The horizontal can be '' "an 'unseen', or 'overwritten' base" '' for the angled wedges laid upon it. In EA 153 the base line "head" is used as the first wedge-(non-angled), following by the angled wedge-2 and wedge-3.)

Amarna letter types by letter

Horizontal, w/ 3-, 4-wedges * EA 15 * EA 19 * EA 23 * EA 28 * EA 31 * EA 35 * EA 161 * EA 205 * EA 252 * EA 282 * EA 287 * EA 288 * EA 289 * EA 290 * EA 325 * EA 367 * EA 369 Angled 3-, 4-wedges * EA 86 * EA 144 * EA 147 * EA 270 * EA 271 * EA 273 * EA 296 * EA 362 * EA 364 * EA 365

References

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 his ...

1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, ) * Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian

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 wit ...

'', 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 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.

External links

Special type of "meš"
Image of Amarna letter EA 153, Metropolitan Museum Cuneiform signs {{DEFAULTSORT:Mes (cuneiform)