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 ...

zu, (also sú, ṣú, and

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 ...

ZU (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 ...

)), is an uncommon-use sign in the 1350s BC 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. Alphabetically, it could conceivably be used for letters ''z'', ''s'', ''ṣ'', or ''u''; however in the Amarna letters it is used mostly for ''personal names'' or ''geographical names''. In the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', Sumerogram ''ZU'' is used to spell the name of god Ninazu, (a name of god Tammuz, two times, Chapter XII, 28, 47). In the ''Epic'', ''ZU'' is also used as a

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 ...

, ''ZU.AB'', for

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 ...

''"apsû"'',

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

''"abyss"''; it is used twice in Chapter VIII, and twice in Chapter XI, the

Gilgamesh flood myth The Gilgamesh flood myth is a partial narrative of the Gilgamesh Epic. It is one of three Mesopotamian Flood Myths alongside the one included in the Eridu Genesis, and an episode from the Atra-Hasis Epic. Many scholars believe that the Gilgam ...

. It was also used to name Giant Squid Studios' game, Abzû.

Uses of ''zu''

''Epic of Gilgamesh''

The usage numbers for ''zu'' in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' are as follows: ''sú''-(1) time, ''ṣú''-(0), ''zu''-(41), and ''ZU''-(7) times.

Partial list of uses in Amarna letters

* EA 100, ^City

Subaru is the automaker, automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate (company), conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the Automotive industry#By manufacturer, twenty-first largest aut ...

, ( Sú- ba- ru), * EA 245, Surata, ( Sú- ra- ta), -ra- (''personal name'') * EA 364, ^City Hazor, ( Ha-sú- ra), Ha--ra

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 through Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages. Cuneiform signs