Sumerian Addenda · Signs

𒌋U · [u] · ten

ten

Where it comes from

The third of cuneiform’s three elementary strokes: the corner wedge, or Winkelhakenthe field's name (German, "angle-hook") for the corner wedge — the small open-angle impression made with the corner of the stylus tip — not a drawn line but the stylus tip pressed straight down into the clay, leaving a hooked triangular dent. It depicts nothing; its job is number. One press is ten; five presses count fifty.

How to remember it

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.

In the wild

Piece by piece:

• 1(u) — ten: one corner wedge, one press of the tip
• še 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, by the bushel
• lugal — “royal”: the king’s standard measure, stamped on the unit

Ten in a single dent, opening a granary line. The counting system is taught in 101’s chapter 05.

Easily confused