#separator:tab #html:true # edubba-cuneiform-101 — one card per sign taught in the course, generated by # bin/deck_export.rb from the Edubba registries and Sign Codex. # Import into Anki (File > Import), then enable FSRS in the deck # options for evidence-backed scheduling. 𒀸 one · AŠ · [aš] · one; single
One stroke. The first mark any scribe ever pressed into clay, and the first sign you learned to write. If you can make one wedge, you already own it — there is nothing else to hold.
1(aš) lu₂ šu ba-ti — "one (unit) — the man received (it)" (urn:nabu:cdli:p010721:obverse:1:3, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒁹 tally · DIŠ · [diš] · one (counting); item marker
A tally mark, standing upright like the person it counts. Every culture that ever counted on a doorpost or a prison wall drew exactly this stroke; the scribes simply pressed theirs into clay. One stands, one is counted.
5(diš) še — "five (units) of barley" (urn:nabu:cdli:p010519:obverse:1:4, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒌋 ten · U · [u] · ten
Ten is a corner: when your tallies reach ten, you stop drawing strokes and stamp a corner instead — the counting hand folding a full set into one dent. Tallies stand in rows; tens sit as hooks.
1(u) še gur lugal — "ten gur of barley, by the royal gur" (urn:nabu:cdli:p100077:obverse:1, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒀀 water · A · [a] · water
Water runs in two thin channels, side by side — two long wedges like irrigation ditches seen from the air. Everything in Sumer begins with water in a channel; so does the sign list.
a mu-na-ru — "dedicated this to him" (urn:nabu:cdli:p216758, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒆳 mountain · KUR · [kur] · mountain; foreign land
A mountain range needs three peaks — count the wedges: one, two, three, a child's drawing of a skyline. Where the flat land ends, the kur begins.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒀭 heaven · AN · [an], diŋir · heaven; god (determinative {d})
Heaven is where the stars are: one star stands for all of it — and for everyone who lives there. Whenever you see the star, look up: sky, sky-god, or any god at all.
diŋir-diŋir — "god-god" — the star doubled, on an Early Dynastic roster (a name or divine pair; approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010019:reverse:4:2', license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒌓 day · UD · [ud], utu · day; sun
Day breaks where the sun clears the ridge — a big wedge of light pushing over the horizon line. When the texts want "on that day," "in those days," "daylight," this is the sign that rises.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒊺 barley · ŠE · [še] · barley; grain
Barley hangs heavy: a stalk with kernels stacked up both sides, drawn the way a farmer would draw it. Wherever wealth is being counted, look for the little ear of grain.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒆠 place · KI · [ki] · earth; place (determinative {ki})
A place on a map: a plot of ground marked out with its boundary lines drawn through it — a surveyor's diamond. Where the star means the world above, this fenced plot means the ground you stand on.
ki-en-gi — Kiengi — Sumer, in its own oldest name (urn:nabu:cdli:p010447:reverse:2:6, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒃲 big · GAL · [gal] · big, great
Big things get the big open wedges: the sign spreads wide like arms flung out to show this big. Whatever stands next to it — house, man, mountain — has just been enlarged.
lugal-gal-zu — "The king knows greatness" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010064:reverse:3:6, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒈬 name · MU · [mu] · name; year
Your name, written down, is what survives of you — and in Sumer, each year's name was the one deed that survived of it. One sign for both: what a thing is called is what it was.
lu₂-diŋir-mu — Lu-diŋirmu — "my man of the god" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010063:obverse:7:11, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒂍 house · É · [e] · house, temple
A house in cross-section: tall frame, floors barred across, one of the most wedge-heavy signs you own — because a house takes work to build. If a word starts with this sign, someone lives or worships inside it.
e₂ ku₃ — "the pure house" — a temple's stock epithet (urn:nabu:cdli:p010644:obverse:3:2, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒁾 tablet · DUB · [dub] · (clay) tablet
A tablet with its ruling still visible: a slab crossed by the lines a scribe pressed to keep the writing straight. The script's own self-portrait — the thing you are reading, drawn inside itself.
dub-sar — "scribe" — tablet-writer, plainly (urn:nabu:cdli:p010009:reverse:1:2, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒈗 king · LUGAL · [lugal] · king
The king is the big man — the sign says so out loud. It is also one of the heaviest signs you own, about a dozen wedges: royalty takes work to write, which is easy to believe.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒇽 man · LU2 · [lu] · man, person
A man standing at his plot: the wedges square off a little frame — one person's standing room. Every proverb's "a man…," every roster's "person who…" begins here; add big and he becomes the king.
lu₂ šu ba-ti — "the man received (it)" (urn:nabu:cdli:p010490:obverse:4:2', license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒌉 child · TUR · [dumu], tur · child, son (dumu); small (tur)
The child is the small one of the house — the sign is compact, few wedges, small on purpose. When a name needs a father, this little sign does the introducing: son of.
dumu-zi — Dumuzi, "the true son" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010019:reverse:3:3', license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒂗 lord · EN · [en] · lord; high priest
The lord holds the middle of the sign like a seat — a frame with the bar of authority across it. Where prayers and epics need a superior — god, king, master — this sign opens the address.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒆤 spirit · KID · [lil], kid · air, spirit (lil₂) — the LIL of Enlil
A woven mat is mostly spirit: air held in a lattice of reeds. Wind you cannot draw — but you can draw the thing it passes through. One humble mat, and it writes the name of the king of the gods.
išib an-na-ke₄ — "purification priest of An" (urn:nabu:cdli:p216758, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒈾 stone · NA · [na] · [na]; stone in some words
A stone is what you find everywhere and build with anywhere — this sign is the script's fieldstone, mortared into names, nouns, and verb chains alike. Small, hard, indispensable.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒉌 oil · NI · [ni], i₃ · [ni]; oil, butter as i₃
An oil jar tips forward, ready to pour. Oil slicks into everything — food, lamps, offerings, and half the verb chains you will read, where the jar quietly primes the verb.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒅎 storm · IM · [im] · clay; rain, storm
A storm front: one long wedge of cloud with the slanting strokes of rain driving off it. What the storm leaves behind is mud — and mud, in Sumer, is what you write on.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒄥 bushel · GUR · [gur] · gur — the great capacity measure of grain accounts
The bushel basket at the granary door: everything pours through it, nothing is official until it has. In an account line it stands at the end like the stamp on a receipt — …by the bushel.
1(u) še gur lugal — "ten gur of barley, by the royal gur" (urn:nabu:cdli:p100077:obverse:1, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒊕 head · SAG · [saŋ] · head; first
A head in profile, tipped back: forehead, jaw, the neck-line under it. Whatever is saŋ comes first — the head of a line, the head of a household, the front of anything.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒅗 mouth · KA · [ka] · mouth
A head, but look at the mouth: the hatching sits right where the lips are, like a speech-bubble scribbled onto a face. Feed it water and it drinks; feed it a portion and it eats.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒅘 drink · KA×A · [naŋ] · to drink
Drink: a mouth with water already in it. The script does not describe the act — it stages it, one sign swallowed by another. Once you have seen the little streams inside the jaw, you cannot unsee the gulp.
ga-naŋ-naŋ — "Milk, drink, drink" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010652, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101 𒅥 eat · KA×GAR · [gu] · to eat
Eat: the mouth with its portion already in. Same staging as its twin drink — only the filling differs: streams of water to drink, a packed ration to eat. Check what is in the mouth before you read it.
ga-gu₇-gu₇ — "Milk, eat, eat" (approximate) (urn:nabu:cdli:p010652, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-101