Sumerian Addenda · Signs

𒀸AŠ · [aš] · one; single

one

Where it comes from

There is no picture behind this sign, and none was ever needed: it is the atomic horizontal wedge itself, one press of the stylus corner, the smallest thing the script can do. In accounts it counts one of things measured in bulk — a gurthe big Mesopotamian grain measure — three hundred sila of roughly a liter each, so about 300 liters of barley; the granary's counterpart to the silver-scale's mina of barley, a shekelthe basic Mesopotamian weight, about 8 grams — one shekel of silver was roughly a hired worker's monthly wage of silver — while its vertical twin DIŠ counts one of things counted by the piece.

How to remember it

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.

In the wild

Piece by piece:

• 1(aš) — one unit: this wedge, doing its oldest job
• lu₂ šu ba-ti — the man received it: the receipts’ star sentence

One wedge opens the line, and the oldest formula in bookkeeping follows. The formula is assembled in 102’s chapter 08.

Easily confused