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 ...

ta sign is a common, multi-use sign of 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 ...

'', the 1350 BC

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 ...

, and other

texts. It also has 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 n ...

mic usage for TA, for example in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', for

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 ...

''"ultu"'',

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

for ''from'', or ''since'', but in only (1) location in the 12 tablet ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. Sumerogram ''TA'' is used elsewhere in the Epic, (7) more times. In the formation of words in text, ''ta'' can be a syllabic for "ta", or as a syllabic for ''t'', or ''a''. (It could also be used as a substitute for the other "t", ''"ṭ"''.)

Amarna letters

As an example of its usage in the

, the photo shows a fragment from the front (obverse) of

Amarna letter EA 26 Amarna letter EA 26, titled ''To the Queen Mother: Some Missing Gold Statues'', is a shorter-length clay tablet Amarna letter from Tushratta of Mittani. Unlike the next letter EA 27 from Tushratta, which is more than twice as tall, and about tw ...

. The photo shows the lower-left corner of the

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

letter, but what is of interest is the isolated cuneiform characters next to the "double-scribed paragraph lines". The characters before the paragraph lines show the last line of Para III (an VIII paragraph letter). The (3) characters shown are ''"la ta-pa- ''. The adjoining piece has the rest of the spelling of the words, making the line: ''"lā parāšu"'', for ''Not Ceasing'', or "Not Interrupting". In English, ''parāsu'' means ''to separate'', ''to cut'', or ''to decide''. The ''la'' is Akkadian ''"lā"'', for English "not". But the reason the verb is spelled across the entire line (EA 26, line 29), is that the subject of Para III concerns the history of "diplomatic missions" coming and going, between

Tushratta Tushratta (Akkadian: and ) was a king of Mitanni, c. 1358–1335 BCE, at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and throughout the reign of Akhenaten. He was the son of Shuttarna II. Tushratta stated that he was the grandson of Artatama I. His si ...

Mittani Mitanni (; Hittite cuneiform ; ''Mittani'' '), c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat (''Hanikalbat'', ''Khanigalbat'', cuneiform ') in Assyrian records, or '' Naharin'' i ...

, and the Pharaoh's Egypt. The last line culminates the paragraph, by saying: ...." (the missions), (l. 29) ''Not, Ceasing!'' (not being interrupted as commonplace, previously) The verb form is a type of stressing, a form of a superlative; a similar last-line occurs in EA 19, Para II.

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 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:Abdi-Ashirta written in cuneiform.PNG,

Abdi-Ashirta Abdi-Ashirta ( Akkadian: 𒀵𒀀𒅆𒅕𒋫 ''Warad-Ašîrta'' RAD2-A-ši-ir-ta fl. 14th century BC) was the ruler of Amurru who was in conflict with King Rib-Hadda of Byblos. While some contend that Amurru was a new kingdom in southern Syria ...

written in cuneiform (using ''ta'').
(Same style ''ta'' as in EA 26, line 29.) Cuneiform signs