Aš (cuneiform)

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(high resolution, expandible photo)

The cuneiform Aš sign, is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Epic, it has the following meanings, besides ''aš'':

:aš
:dil
:ina
:ṭel
:AŠ

Some special considerations for a single "cuneiform sign" are as follows. In Egyptian hieroglyphs, the space for a group of signs (in cuneiform, a group of individual strokes), is called '' (quadrat)-block''. Among cuneiform signs, only a handful of signs (specifically the individual 'strokes', horizontal, vertical, "wedge", 'half-strokes', etc.) are found in single usage. For ''aš'' specifically, (the full-length, horizontal stroke) its highest usage in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' is for the preposition ''ina'' (for ''in'', ''into'', etc.; confer for a specific "ina" usage (by Kovacs), Gilgamesh flood myth#Alternative translations). The specific usage numbers for the sign's meaning in the Epic is as follows: ''aš''-(4), ''dil''-(3), ''ina''-(284), ''ṭel''-(1), ''AŠ''-(1). The high usage as the preposition may be for space considerations, but it should be considered that the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was also a "training document" for scribes, over hundreds of years, so the multi-functioning of signs may also have been in issue, (one cuneiform sign substituted for the preposition: ''i-na'', of two signs.)

Usage in the Amarna letters

The most common use of cuneiform ''aš'' in the Amarna letters is for the spelling of "šapāru", for ''to send'', ''to send in writing''. Besides the usage for "šapāru" in EA 362 (pictured), it is also used to spell ''šapāru'' in EA 34, titled ''The Pharaoh's reproach Answered'',
line 8, ''Obverse''—spelled, ta-aš-- tap- ra.

Amarna letter EA 28, titled ''Messengers Detained and a Protest'', uses ''aš'' for the spelling of "aššum", Akkadian language ''because of''-(''concerning, regarding''), and in EA 28, line 24, obverse, Paragraph III, Tushratta, (of Mitanni) continues in his letter: ''... "regarding" (the)-Messengers (i.e. Pirissi and Tulubri)...''.

References

* Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, )
* Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh'', Parpola, Simo, Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 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.

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Cuneiform signs