KÚR
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(high resolution, expandible photo)
The cuneiform KÚR sign is used extensively in the Amarna letters. It also has a minor usage in the Epic 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-states 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 cuneiform sign is easily compared to a "squashed-X" alphabetic.
KÚR is used and is defined as a capital-letter Sumerogram (majuscule), and specifically in the Akkadian language has the meaning of "warfare", "hostility", Akkadian nukurtu.[1] Any syllabic cuneiform sign with 'n' or 't' can supply the beginning or end of "nukurtu".
Usage, and Amarna letters list[edit]
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)[2] land,...."
List usage in Amarna letters[edit]
A partial of letters and the spelling of "nukurtu":
- nu-KÚR-te, Amarna letter EA 252, 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[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Parpola, 1971. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Glossary, pp. 119-145, nukurtu, p. 135.
- ^ Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, transl. with intro. (1985,1989) The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VI, (VI, l. 40, (38 in Kovacs)), p. 52.
- Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, transl. with intro. (1985,1989) The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. (Softcover ISBN 978-0-8047-1711-3), 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, ISBN 0-8018-6715-0)
- Parpola, 1971. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Parpola, Simo, Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, c 1997, Tablet I thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages.
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