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 wedge-sha ...

KÚR sign is used extensively in the

Amarna letters The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between t ...

. It also has a minor usage in the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, 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 ...

.'' Its usage in the Amarna letters is due to the letters' topics of "hostilities", "war", or "warfare" in the discord amongst 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 and the regional discord in the Canaan region. A large subset of the Amarna letters are written by vassal kings in governorship of cities, towns or regions in Canaan. The sign is a simple two-stroke sign, a horizontal (or slight upward-stroke) with a stroke slashing downwards across its center. The end result

sign is easily compared to a "squashed-X" alphabetic. KÚR is used and is defined as a capital-letter

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 ...

(

majuscule Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

), and specifically in the

Akkadian language Akkadian (, 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 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...

has the meaning of "warfare", "hostility", Akkadian ''nukurtu''. Any syllabic cuneiform sign with 'n' or 't' can supply the beginning or end of "nukurtu".

Usage, and Amarna letters list

In the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', the KÚR sign is only used twice and only once for ''nukurtu'', Tablet VI, line 40: ''"...a battering ram'' (Akkadian "iašubû") ''that attracts the enemy''-('nukurtu', "hostility", ''nu-KÚR-ti'') ''land,...."''

List usage in Amarna letters

A partial of letters and the spelling of "nukurtu": * nu-KÚR- te,

Amarna letter EA 252 Amarna letter EA 252, titled: ''Sparing One's Enemies,'' is a square, mostly flat clay tablet letter written on both sides, and the bottom edge. Each text line was written with a horizontal line scribed below the text line, as well as a vertical ...

, 252:9, ''( i- na nukurtu,'', "in warfare")
photo here
* nu-KÚR- tu, EA 271, 271:11, obverse * nu-KÚR- tu, EA 273, obverse * nu-KÚR- ut, EA 286, 286:41, reverse

External links

Photo

, line 9, "in warfare", ( i- na nu-KÚR- te)

References

*Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, transl. with intro. (1985,1989) ''The Epic of Gilgamesh.'' Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. (Softcover ), Glossary, Appendices, Appendix (Chapter XII=Tablet XII) A line-by-line translation (Chapters I-XI). * 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 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. ---- File:Near Eastern - Cylinder Seal with Figure and Inscriptions - Walters 42680 - View A.jpg, A

cylinder seal A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...

in the

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

using the KÚR sign. {{DEFAULTSORT:KUR (cuneiform) Akkadian language - three letter syllables Cuneiform signs Sumerograms