The

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 ...

an sign (or

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 ...

AN, in Akkadian consisting of ASH 𒀸 and MAŠ 𒈦), is a common, multi-use sign, a syllabic for ''an'', and an alphabetic sign used for ''a'', or ''n''; it is common in both 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 ...

'' over hundreds of years, and the 1350 BC Amarna letters, and other cuneiform texts. It is also used for the designation of a "god", and is sometimes represented as a superscript: ^d, or capitalized: ^D, for "

dingir ''Dingir'' ⟨⟩, usually transliterated DIĜIR, () is a Sumerian word for 'god' or 'goddess'. Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for religious names and related concepts, in which case it is not pronounced and ...

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 ...

, "god". The example photo at right shows (2nd list), a list of 14 named gods, all with "an"; the first pair on the list ''AN-UTU'', or ^D UTU, refers to the "sun-god", using

Ud (cuneiform) The cuneiform ud sign, also ut, and with numerous other syllabic and Sumerogram uses, is a common sign for the mid 14th-century BC Amarna letters and the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. The sign is constructed upon the single vertical stroke , with ...

, as the sumerogram, namely UTU (sun Sumerogram). Cuneiform ''an'' can also be found in compound form with another cuneiform sign, an example being DAGAL, . The older version of DAGAL used the 'god symbol' as a star within the sign: ; (older version of DAGAL, incorporating "star": ).

''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage

In the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', Tablets I-XII, ''"an"'' is used for the following meanings by the following numbers: an-(120) times, ìl-(0) times, ^d-(593), AN-(27), and DINGIR-(76) times.

List of Babylonian gods, etc.

From Budge's revised book on ''Babylonian Life and History'', a list of many of the major gods from Babylonian history (and Sumerian): *Anu, or Anum *Bêl (An Be), ** or

Enlil Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by t ...

(An En lil), -? * Ea (An É a), *The "Moon-God": **

Sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

(An-Sin), An **

Enzu Sin () or Suen (, ) also known as Nanna ( ) is the Mesopotamian god representing the moon. While these two names originate in two different languages, respectively Akkadian language, Akkadian and Sumerian language, Sumerian, they were already ...

(An En- zu) **Nannaru (An LUGAL Ki) *

Shamash Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...

(An UTU) *The "Wind-God": (see ''Photo-caption'', above) ** Adad **Rammânu *The "Great God-of-Babylon": **

Marduk Marduk (; cuneiform: Dingir, ᵈAMAR.UTU; Sumerian language, Sumerian: "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) is a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of Babylon who eventually rose to prominence in the 1st millennium BC. In B ...

or **Bêl-Marduk * Nabû (Nebo) (An ?, or An " pa"), -?, or *

Ninurta Ninurta (: , possible meaning "Lord fBarley"), also known as Ninĝirsu (: , meaning "Lord fGirsu"), is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was f ...

(Enurta) *

Nergal Nergal ( Sumerian: d''KIŠ.UNU'' or ; ; Aramaic: ܢܸܪܓܲܠ; ) was a Mesopotamian god worshiped through all periods of Mesopotamian history, from Early Dynastic to Neo-Babylonian times, with a few attestations indicating that his cult surv ...

* Gibil * Nusku (An Nus?- ku), * Irra * Ashshur *

Tiamat In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( or , ) is the primordial sea, mating with Abzû (Apsu), the groundwater, to produce the gods in the Babylonian epic '' Enûma Elish'', which translates as "when on high". She is referred to as a woman, an ...

* Apsu ( Abzu) * Lakhmu * Lakhamu *

Anshar Anshar ( , , ) was a Mesopotamian god regarded as a primordial king of the gods. He was not actively worshiped. He was regarded as the father of Anu. In the first millennium BCE his name came to be used as a logographic representation of the ...

Kishar In the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, Kishar () is the daughter of Abzu and Lahmu, the first children of Tiamat In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( or , ) is the primordial sea, mating with Abzû (Apsu), the groundwater, to produce the ...

* Mummu (An Mu- um- mu), --- * Kingu *

Ishtar Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...

Ninlil Ninlil ( D NIN.LÍL; meaning uncertain) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Enlil. She shared many of his functions, especially the responsibility for declaring destinies, and like him was regarded as a senior deity and head of th ...

(An Nin Lil) * Damkina (An Dam Ki na), -Dam-

List of gods and associated temples, towns, etc.

*Anu, or Anum, the E-anna in

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

*Bêl (An Be) ** or

(An En lil),

E-kur Ekur ( ), also known as Duranki, is a Sumerian language, Sumerian term meaning "mountain house". It is the assembly of the gods in the Garden of the gods (Sumerian paradise), Garden of the gods, parallel in Greek mythology to Mount Olympus and ...

Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...

* Ea (An É a), E-apsu in Eridu; Ibex *The "Moon-God": **

(An-Sin), E-gishshirgal in Ur, E-khulkhul in

Harran Harran is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 904 km2, and its population is 96,072 (2022). It is approximately southeast of Urfa and from the Syrian border crossing at Akçakale. ...

(An En- zu) **Nannaru (An LUGAL Ki) *

(An UTU) *The "Wind-God": ** Adad **Rammânu *The "Great God-of-Babylon": **

( E-sagila in

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

, w/"serpent-gryphon", No. "Ten", Jupiter), or, **Bêl-Marduk * Nabû (Nebo) (An ?, or An " pa"), Shrines at

Borsippa Borsippa (Sumerian language, Sumerian: BAD.SI.(A).AB.BAKI or Birs Nimrud, having been identified with Nimrod) is an archeological site in Babylon Governorate, Iraq, built on both sides of a lake about southwest of Babylon on the east bank of th ...

, and

Calah Nimrud (; ) is an ancient Assyrian city (original Assyrian name Kalḫu, biblical name Calah) located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah (), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. It was a major ...

Nimrud Nimrud (; ) is an ancient Assyrian people, Assyrian city (original Assyrian name Kalḫu, biblical name Calah) located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah (), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. ...

)

References

* Budge. ''Babylonian Life and History,'' Budge, E.A. Wallace (Barnes & Noble edition), c 2005 (c 1883, revised 1925), 245 pages. (softcover, ) * 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 thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages.(softcover, )-(Volume 1) File:MLC 1805.jpg, Line drawing with usage of ''an'' sign.
Used in lines 1-(=0), 4, and 10. File:Amran Kudurru 03.jpg, Amran

Kudurru A kudurru was a type of stone document used as a boundary stone and as a record of land grants to vassals by the Kassites and later dynasties in ancient Babylonia between the 16th and 7th centuries BC. The original kudurru would typically be stor ...

(used at beginning of 1st line) Cuneiform signs