Sumerian Addenda · Signs
head
| Name | SAG |
|---|---|
| Reads | [saŋ] |
| Means | head; first |
| Taught in | 08 · The sign workshop |
Where it comes from
A human head in profile — one of the classic demonstration pieces of the script’s history, because you can watch it turn: the early drawing lies on its back after the script’s quarter-rotation, and the wedge-built late form still keeps the jaw and skull-line. It writes saŋ, “head,” and by extension “first, foremost.”
How to remember it
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.
In the wild
urn:nabu:etcsl:1.8.1.5.1:54 · license: ETCSL ·
non-commercial.
Piece by piece:
- ur-saŋ — hero: dog-of-the-head, the one out front
- zu / nu-zu — known / not known, the negation flipping it
Gilgameš’s epic counts its heroes, famous and nameless, and saŋ makes them heroes — the ones at the head. The line is read in 102’s chapter 08; the head’s rotation is drawn in 101’s chapter 02.