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 wedg ...

sign ba, is a common-use sign of the Amarna letters, the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an 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 begins wit ...

,'' and other cuneiform texts (for example Hittite texts). Linguistically, it has the alphabetical usage in texts for ''b'', ''a'', or syllabically for ''ba'', and also a replacement for ''"b"'', by ''"p"''. The a is replaceable in word formation by any of the 4 vowels: ''a, e, i,'' or ''u''.

''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage

The ''ba'' sign usage in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' is as follows: ''ba''-(282 times); ''BA''-(7).

References

Moran, William L. William Lambert Moran (August 11, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American Assyriologist. He was born in Chicago, United States. In 1939, Moran joined the Jesuit order. He then attended Loyola University in Chicago, where he received his ...

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. ---- Image:Amarna_letter-_Royal_Letter_from_Ashur-uballit,_the_king_of_Assyria,_to_the_king_of_Egypt_MET_DP-211-142.jpg, line drawing, Obverse
Amarna letter EA 15-(titled: ''"Assyria joins the International Scene"'').
A common

Amarna letter 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 ...

that uses cuneiform ''ba''.
(Third from last cuneiform sign, line 9.) Image:Amarna_letter-_Royal_Letter_from_Ashur-uballit,_the_king_of_Assyria,_to_the_king_of_Egypt_MET_DP-211-143.jpg, line drawing, Reverse Cuneiform signs