#separator:tab #html:true # edubba-cuneiform-103 — 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. 𒊭 which · ŠA · [ša] · the particle ša — "which, of"; the school's hinge-word
Which one? The one ša points at. Every time Akkadian glues a noun to a noun ("the lord — which is to say — of heaven") or hangs a clause on a noun ("the man who…"), this sign does the pointing. Learn one sign, own the language's hinge.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅇 and · U3 · [u] · the conjunction u — "and"
And — the sign you'll meet exactly where English would put the word: between heaven and earth, the strong and the weak, silver and barley. When the line pauses to add one more thing, this is the wedge-cluster doing it.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌝 tether · UM · [um] · [um]; the nominative's closing -um
A tether holds an animal to its post; -um tethers a noun to its role as subject. Spot this sign at a word's end and you know who the sentence is about — the noun is tied down, case settled.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒇷 juniper · LI · [li/le] · [li/le]; a juniper in the lists
A juniper is a modest tree with berries in everything — gin, stews, incense. The sign is the same: modest shape, spread through the whole corpus one li at a time. Its e-colored twin le rides the same bracket, and first walks in chapter 08: lē'ûm, "the capable," the epilogue's word for its able king.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅖 dust · IŠ · [iš] · dust, soil
Dust is what a foundation trench is dug through and what everything settles into. The sign starts at the bottom: where there is an iš, something is being grounded — a building's footing or a verb's past.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅕 scent · IR · [ir/er] · scent, perfume in the lists
A scent drifts — you can't pin it to one spot, and this sign won't be pinned to one vowel. Catch the general direction (r, front vowel) and follow the word to its meaning.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒄠 wild bull · AM · [am] · wild bull — a bull-sign marked with "mountain"
The wild bull is what a sentence acts on at its peril — and -am marks the noun acted on. When a word ends in the bull, it is the object of the story: handle with care.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒁴 post · DIM · [tim] · post, pillar; the genitive's -tim
A post is what things are fastened to — and the genitive is the case of belonging. Where the post stands at a word's end, the word is tied to something: of the land, of the earth, of the year.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒍢 bile · ZE2 · [ṣi/ṣe] · bile, gall; the emphatic ṣ
Bile is sharp and it stings — so is the sound. When you see the bile-sign, press the s until it bites: ṣ, the consonant with an edge.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒁉 its · BI · [pi] · veteran — BI gains [pi₂]: the last syllable of Ḫammurapi
You know its voice already; now hear it pop. The proof it matters: the king of Babylon signs himself with it — Ḫa-am-mu-ra-pi₂ — and you cannot spell the most famous name in Mesopotamia without this veteran's new reading.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒁁 open · BAD · [be] · [be]; as a word, to open, apart
Open — the sign that opens doors opens titles: every bēlum, every "lord of…" begins by opening with be. One wedge apart, and the gates of rank swing wide.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒂖 bright · EL · [el] · bright, pure (ellum)
Bright — polished, cleared of tarnish. The sign finishes "lord" the way a shine finishes silver: be + el, and the title gleams.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒀜 father · AD · [ad/at] · father
The father stands at the head of the household and the end of the ledger: when a payment falls due in the laws — inaddin, "he shall pay" — the father-sign is right there in the middle of the word, holding the family accountable. The pressed third of the family, aṭ, arrives with the epilogue's šaṭram, "the inscribed" (chapter 18) — ad, at, aṭ: one sign, the whole dental row.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅆 eye · IGI · [ši/lim] · veteran — IGI gains [ši/lim]: šīmātum's opener, awīlim's close
The eye goes abstract: what was watching is now just whispering ši. When destinies are decreed on the stele — šīmātum — the old eye opens the word without seeing a thing. And from chapter 10 the same sign carries a second syllable: lim, the closer of awīlim, "of a man" — every time the laws put a man in the genitive (a-wi-lim), the old eye seals the word. One sign, two workaday sounds, no eyes in either.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌧 the Land · KALAM · [mātum] · veteran — KALAM gains [mātum]: the Land-sign as a sumerogram
Nothing to relearn: the sign still means the Land. Only the voice changes at the border — the eye reads Sumerian, the mouth answers in Akkadian. When you meet it in a reading, say mātum and move on.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒉣 prince · NUN · [nun] · prince, noble
A prince among syllables: it turns up where rank is being handed out. The gods who assign kingship on the stele's second line carry the prince-sign in their own family name.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒈗 king · LUGAL · [šarrum] · veteran — LUGAL gains [šarrum]: the king-sign as a sumerogram
The most royal sign in the school never changes its meaning, only its language. Where Sumerian said lugal, Babylon says šarrum — same wedges, new king.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌒 nook · UB · [ub] · [ub]; a corner-nook in the lists
A nook is where things tuck in tight: the sign tucks in right behind the grass-sign in verb after verb, a snug -ub- pocket in the middle of the action.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒊌 lion · UG · [ug/uk] · a raging beast — a lion-sign marked with "day"
A lion is what a courtroom becomes at the moment of conviction: uktīn — "he proved it against him" — opens with the lion-sign, and someone is about to be eaten.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌑 grass · U2 · [u] · plant, grass
Grass grows first — before anything else happens on a plot, the grass is already up. In the laws it is the same: before the verb gets anywhere, the grass-sign has already sprouted at its front.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒀉 arm · A2 · [id/it/ed/et] · veteran — A₂ gains [id/it/ed/et]: the dental family, both vowel colors
The arm does what law 1's verbs describe: it lays the charge and it carries out the sentence. When a law's verb opens on the arm, someone is being seized by it. The arm carries its whole dental family in both vowel colors — it, ed, et: the perfect's ittadi, a name's ašarēd, the cheek-word lēt — one sign, four dress sizes of one sound.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒋳 touch · TAG · [šum] · to touch, strike; šumma's first half
Touch — every law begins by touching a hypothetical: if a man… The lightest touch of the stylus opens a whole world of consequence; that touch is this sign.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒉿 ear · PI · [wa/wi] · ear; the w Sumerian never wrote
An ear hears the witness — and every awīlum in every law is someone the court must hear. The man of the laws carries an ear in the middle of his name.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒈝 ripen · LUM · [lum] · to ripen, be fruitful
Ripen — a man in full legal standing is, in the laws' eyes, a case fully ripe: rights, duties, liabilities all grown in. The word for him ripens to its end on this sign.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌓 day · UD · [tam] · veteran — UD gains [tam]: nērtam, the murder charge of law 1
The old day has a dark hour: in law 1 it sets at the end of nērtam — the murder charge. The brightest sign in 101's sky, doing the grimmest word in the first law.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒇴 flourish · LAM · [lam] · luxuriance, flourishing
Flourish is what the second man in law 1 was doing until the accusation landed on him — the object of the sentence, closed by this sign. In this school's own story, LAM is also the last box to fall: chapter 06 read law 1 around it, and chapter 07 finally taught it.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒆗 mighty · KAL · [dan] · veteran — KAL gains [dan]: dannum, "the strong"
Mighty in Sumerian, dan- of dannum in Akkadian — the one veteran whose new voice says exactly what the sign always meant. Strength crossing the border unbroken.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌅 born · TU · [ṭu] · veteran — TU gains [ṭu₂]: ṭubbim, "to make well"
Born again with a harder edge: the gentle t of birth pressed into ṭ. What is well-being — ṭūbum — if not being born into the world and kept whole in it? The birth-sign carries the king's promise to keep it so.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒈪 night · MI · [mi] · night, black
Night falls, and out of it comes justice: say mi and let mīšarum follow. The darkest sign in the school carries its brightest word.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒀾 curse · AŠ2 · [as] · a curse in the lists
A curse, mid-sentence and defused: on the stele the bitter sign sits inside nasqā, "are choice" — the king praising his own words. Say as and note the irony; irony is memorable.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅁 corner · IB · [ib/eb/ep] · a corner in the lists
A corner joins two walls; this sign joins vowels. It opens the king's epšētum, "deeds," and it will close the stretch's last blessing, liṭīb — "may it be well." Deeds first, blessing after: a fair order.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒊬 write · SAR · [šar] · veteran — SAR gains [šar]: šarrum, the king spelled sound by sound
The sign that means write spells the king: when Hammurapi wants his kingship in full Akkadian voice rather than borrowed Sumerian dress, the scribe's own verb writes the first syllable.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒂵 milk · GA · [qa] · veteran — GA gains [qa]: nasqā, "choice" — the emphatic q
Milk pressed hard turns to something sharper — so does the g: press it to the back of the throat and the milk-sign says qa. The stele uses it to call its own words nasqā, "choice, picked out" — quality pressed from quantity.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅋 step · IL · [il] · the il- of illak, "he goes"
One step: il. Then another: illak — "he goes," off to the river, to the judge, to wherever the law sends him. The syllable that sets the whole stele walking.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒀠 hoe · AL · [al] · the hoe
A hoe strikes the ground step after step, the way a durative verb keeps happening: illak, "he goes," itabbal, "he carries off" — both close on the hoe. Slow, repeated, thorough work.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒋰 pair · TAB · [tab/tap] · two wedges side by side — a pair; to double
Two strokes, one sign: a pair. Where you see it, something is doubled or carried along — in itabbal, "he carries off," the pair rides in the middle of the verb.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒂍 house · É · [bītum] · veteran — É gains [bītum]: the house-sign as a sumerogram
The oldest address in the school: you learned this sign to read é-dub-ba-a, the tablet house. Babylon still lives in it — it only answers to a different word at the door.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒇉 the deep · ENGUR · [id] · the sweet waters under the earth (engur); with A before it one word — written ID₂, spoken Id: the River
The deep under everything: a box of water below the ground line. Put plain water in front of it and the deep rises to the surface as the River — add the god-star and it can hear your case.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒁍 tear · BU · [bu/pu] · [bu]; to tear away in the lists
What cannot be proven must be torn out some other way: the pu of kišpū is why law 2 sends a man to the River at all. A long sign for a long walk to the water.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅅 door · IG · [ig/ik/iq] · the door
A door decides: in or out. In law 2 the door-sign opens the verdict itself — iktašassu, "the River has overwhelmed him" — the moment the case swings shut.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒍪 know · ZU · [su] · veteran — ZU gains [su]: the -su left when -šu melts: iktašassu
To know someone is to have caught them: when the law's verb closes its grip on "him" — iktašassu, "it has overwhelmed HIM" — the knowing-sign seals the capture.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌔 spittle · UH2 · [uh] · spittle, phlegm in the lists
Nobody forgets an insult: the spit-sign opens uḫtappid, "he has blinded" — the deed of law 196, an eye for an eye. Crude sign, capital crime, unforgettable pairing.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒉺 branch · PA · [pa] · branch; the scepter in Sumerian
A branch in the court's hand: uḫappadū, "they shall blind," carries the pa at its center — the scepter come down. Power was always a stick.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒀊 window · AB · [ab/ap] · a window in the lists
A window looks out of a house the way a vowel looks out of this sign: open on one side. In law 196 it is the ap inside the court's sentence — a small window in a dark verb.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌉 child · TUR · [mārum] · veteran — TUR gains [mārum]: the son-sign DUMU as a sumerogram
The smallest sign in the family carries the family: where a son's rights, body or inheritance are at stake, the little child-sign stands in the line — and Babylon says mārum.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅀 my · IA · [ia] · i and a fused in one sign — the -ya of "my"
Two old friends — i and a — standing so close they became one sign, meaning my: what is mine stands that close to me. Write it whenever the writer claims something for himself.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒊹 myriad · ŠAR2 · [šar] · 3600 — the number of everything
The myriad: one circle holding sixty sixties. When a friend wishes you MU ŠAR₂.KAM — year number 3600 — he is wishing you more calendar than arithmetic can pay out.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒄰 ordinal · KAM · [kam] · the counting tag after numbers — "-th"
The ordinal hook: number + KAM = "-th." Wherever the scribes counted anything in order — and they counted everything — this little tag closes the phrase.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒉈 brazier · NE · [bi] · veteran — NE gains [bi]: qibīma, "speak!" — the letter-opener's middle
A letter is read ALOUD — the reader lends the sender a voice the way a brazier lends a room its light. The fire-sign burning in the middle of "speak!" is the letter coming alight.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒊑 distant · RI · [re] · veteran — RI gains [re]: ašarēd, "foremost" — the e-colored ri
What is distant is out ahead: the one who has gone farthest in front is ašarēd, "foremost" — and the far-sign, e-colored, sits inside the word for it.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒆠 place · KI · [ki/qi] · veteran — KI gains [qi]: qibīma's opener — the old ki serves as ever
Place twice over: the ground a festival stands on when it is a syllable, and the place a loan comes FROM when the notary's old Sumerian does the talking. And pressed to its emphatic twin, qi, the place-sign opens qibīma, "speak!" — every letter in Babylon begins on it (chapter 12).
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌌 never · UL · [ul] · the flat no of statements
Never. Not "not-if," not "may-it-not" — just no. The king uses it exactly once in the lines this course reads, to say his deeds have no rival, and the sentence sounds like a door closing.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒁲 verdict · DI · [ṭi] · veteran — DI gains [ṭi]: liṭīb, "may it be sweet"
A verdict can be pressed harder: say di with the tongue braced and it comes out ṭi — the sound of a judgment you can feel. The stele wishes its reader's heart liṭīb, sweetened — a verdict in the reader's favor.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒋼 approach · TE · [te] · to approach in the lists
The sign that kept you waiting: it approached for four chapters and arrived last. It completes ūtebbibaššuma — "the River has cleared him" — the best news in law 2.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒊍 bear · AZ · [as/az] · the bear in the lists; one sign for three tails — as, az, and the pressed aṣ
A caged beast: the lion-frame with a stone in its belly. Its growl is the snap at the end of imtaḫaṣ, "he has struck" — the bear closes the blow.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒄊 path · GIR3 · [eṣemtum] · the foot, the path; never voiced alone here — with PAD.DU it writes eṣemtum, "bone"
A path begins with a foot, and a foot stands on bone. Three signs walk in file — foot, morsel, go — and the reader says none of them: only the word they carry together.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒉻 morsel · PAD · [eṣemtum] · a morsel, a ration; the middle of the bone-compound GIR₃.PAD.RA₂
The morsel in the middle: between the foot that walks and the go-sign that closes, a small hard piece — the bit of a body, the bone.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒄴 sigh · AH · [ah/eh/uh] · a pure syllable — the throat's breath in three colors; me-eḫ-ri-šu, "his equal"
A sigh — the same breath whether it rides an a, an e, or a u. One sign, three vowels, one rasp in the throat.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒁺 go · DU · [ra] · veteran — DU gains [ra₂]: the third sign of the bone-compound
The go-sign ends the bone-word — fitting, since nothing goes anywhere without bones. A foot-sign at the start, a foot-sign at the end, and the skeleton in between.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒈧 kid · MASZ2 · [maš] · the kid goat — and the interest on a loan: growth measured the herdsman's way
The kid in the ledger: every mina out on loan is a nanny goat, and MAŠ₂ counts what she bears. Where this sign appears, money is breeding.
KASPAM u MAŠ₂-BI — "the silver and its interest" — the repayment clause of a Sippar loan (urn:nabu:cdli:p257793:obverse:10, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒂆 shekel · GIN2 · [šiqlum] · the shekel-sign — written GIN₂, spoken šiqlum: the weight silver moves in
The shekel: the small weight that prices a month of a man's work. Sixty of them make the mina; one of them, on this shelf's loan, is what a mina of silver breeds.
MAŠ₂ 1(diš) ma-na ▢ GIN₂ — "its interest: on the mina, a third of a shekel" — a Sippar rate (urn:nabu:cdli:p257793:obverse:2, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒈹 goddess · INANNA · [Ištar] · the goddess's reed-bundle standard — written INANNA, spoken Ištar in Akkadian mouths
The goddess at the gate: her looped standard stood at the storehouse door, and the sign still stands wherever she is named — in hymns, in temples, and in the year-name of a Sippar loan.
MU E₂ {d}INANNA — "Year: the temple of Inanna (…Immerum built)" — a year-name dating a loan (urn:nabu:cdli:p257793:reverse:1, license: attribution)
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒍝 bead · ZA · [ṣa] · veteran — ZA gains [ṣa]: uṣṣab, "it will grow" — interest's own syllable
A bead is wealth in its smallest unit — and uṣṣab is what wealth does in a loan contract: bead by bead, shekel by shekel, the interest grows. The pressed s is the sound of the count tightening.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒅈 praise · AR · [ar] · praise, glory in the lists; here the syllable of maḫar, "before"
Praise is standing before approving eyes — and the sign's big word, maḫar, is exactly that: standing before. An eye in the sign, an audience in the meaning.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒌫 lap · UR2 · [ur] · the lap — a body's base; foundations in the lists
The lap is where things rest and where they start. In this course it carries one unforgettable rest: the last syllable of līmur, "let him see his case" — the course's whole purpose, coming to rest on its last sign.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒆪 seize · KU · [qu] · veteran — KU gains [qu]: šūqurātim, "precious"
What is seized is held dear: press the k until it grips — qu — and you are inside šūqurātim, the king's own word for words worth keeping.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103 𒀩 statue · ALAN · [ṣalmum] · the statue — a person's standing image; written ALAN, spoken ṣalmum
The statue is the person who stays. Hammurapi's laws end with an invitation to stand before HIS — ana maḫar ṣalmīya — and read. The sign is the king waiting in stone.
Edubba · edubba.ac · CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted lines carry their own licenses edubba edubba-cuneiform-103