Flickr - Nic's events - British Museum with Cory and Mary, 6 Sep 2007 - 163

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 ...

ud sign, also ut, and with numerous other syllabic 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 or Hittite. Sumerograms are n ...

uses, is a common sign for the mid 14th-century 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 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 sign is constructed upon the single vertical stroke , with various positionings of two wedge-strokes at the left, sometimes approximately centered, or often inscribed upwards to the left, the second wedge-stroke (or 'angled line-stroke'), occasionally inscribed/ligatured upon the first. The wedge-strokes can have any size, are often smaller than the vertical, but as an example, Amarna letter EA 256, can be almost as large as the vertical. In the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', sign ''ud'' is listed as used for the following linguistic elements: :* lah :* par :* pir :* tam :* tú :* ud :* ut :* uṭ Sumerograms :* BABBAR--"silver" :* UD--"daily", "day", (2nd "daily"-(no. 2)) :* UTU--"sun" The usage numbers for each linguistic element in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' are as follows: ''lah''--(2), ''par''--(5), ''pir''--(4), ''tam''--(32), ''tú''--(46), ''ud''--(30), ''ut''--(95), ''uṭ''-(7), ''BABBAR''-(1), ''UD''-(75), ''UTU''-(58).

Amarna letters usage

In the Amarna letters, mid 1300s BC, letters written to the King (

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

) of Egypt (or an official at the Egyptian court), many letters (numbered up to EA 382, about 300+ actual letters, or partials) are written by 'governors' of

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 in Canaan. The Canaanite letters are famous for various forms of a

prostration formula In the 1350 BC correspondence of 382–letters, called the Amarna letters, the prostration formula is usually the opening subservient remarks to the addressee, the Egyptian pharaoh. The formula is based on prostration, namely reverence and ...

, following a 'letter Introduction'. The introduction often states accolades such as: ''"...(of) My-God(s), My Sun-God,...."'', or continuing, ''"My Sun, from, Heaven"''-(heaven),sa-me. (

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 ...

: ''^an

UTU Utu (dUD "Sun"), also known under the Akkadian name Shamash, ''šmš'', syc, ܫܡܫܐ ''šemša'', he, שֶׁמֶשׁ ''šemeš'', ar, شمس ''šams'', Ashurian Aramaic: 𐣴𐣬𐣴 ''š'meš(ā)'' was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. ...

- ia ^AN

- Sa- Me'', English: God-Sun-mine, Heaven-Sun-"Sa-Me", for Akkadian heaven, "šamû".) "Sun" is here used as UTU. Numerous Canaanite letters use this; other letters, for example

Amarna letter EA 34 Amarna letter EA 34, titled: ''"The Pharaoh's Reproach Answered"'', is a moderately tall clay tablet Amarna letter from the King of Alashiya. ((Obverse)-See here Besides a complicated story line to EA 34, the letter is shown to be in ''Very G ...

titled: ''The Pharaoh's Reproach Answered,'' addresses the Pharaoh as being honored "daily", referring to Sun God Ra's daily appearance–as "the sun" itself;

'daily', is "ūmussu", and EA 34 uses UD (day, daily), ''ud-mi''.

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 through Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages. File:MLC 1805.jpg, Line art showing ''ud''/''ut'' in Lines 3,4, and 6. Sumerian words and phrases Cuneiform signs Sumerograms