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Remaining Fara Sign Unknowns (after making use of one list by Prof. Dr. Manfred Krebernik)

For the correponding KWU list (Schneider's Wirtschafturkunden von Ur III), please click here.
For the corresponding UET II list (Ur Excavation Texts), please click here.
For the corresponding list (Rosengarten's "Répertoire Commenté des Signes Présargoniques Sumériens de Laga$") please click here.

 

Below there follows a list of Fara signs
from the LAK list which I have not yet been able to identify with reasonable security
even after consulting Prof. Dr. Manfred Krebernik's 1998 article on the Fara texts pp.275-283 etc. in
Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit und Frühdynastische Zeit OBO 160/1.
(This is revised as of 1 April, 2004.)
For a summary of Dr. Krebernik's list, please click here.
For recent additions and deletions from this list of unkowns, please click here ).
For my earlier list of unknowns before using Dr. Krebernik's article, please also click here).

More specifically, the signs listed below are those which I was unable to identify
either (a) as a sign known from another list,
or (b) as a sign not in other lists, but clear enough that analysis and identification of parts is secure.

I am aware that a full paleographic study of Fara is needed, and is not yet published.
I am including in the concordance those signs about which secure decisions are easier.

If specialists in Fara texts are able to get involved in the effort, of course we can do more.
Please email any comments on these signs to Lloyd Anderson.

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Here first was the residue from Dr. Krebernik's list, those items which I had not yet made full use of last October to amend the earlier list. Some of these may have been used for the current version of the Concordance.

Simple and composite signs which were later abandoned, or which were replaced by other signs. Among these are:
LAK654, TA.gunu
LAK777 = UD / TUA?
EREN2+X
SHE+NAM2 = SHUSHx

Pairs of similar signs which later merged:
ASH2 with ZIZ2 (not distinguished both under LAK162)
LAK248 KISH with LAK240 / 253 ANSHE / GIRI3

Signs which were later split into a sequence of other signs:
LAK131 becomes UR3.BAR (is UR3 intended here?)
LAK175 becomes IL2(.MA2).DUB2 and similar (SANGA2-6)
LAK212 becomes TU.GABA.LISH = ASAL2
LAK742 becomes DUG.SILA3.BUR = BAHAR2

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Following now is the list remaining after adopting Dr. Krebernik's treatment for some of them.

3
13
20 (Krebernik: probably a kind of sheep or goat)
21
27
28
30
37
50
51
61
79
80 (??? x TAK4 ?)
81
85 (??? x TAK4 ?) Krebernik: LAK85 = GIRIx (SI x KID2 = SI x TAK4)
93
108 (NINDA2 x ???)
111 (NINDA2 x ???)
118
120
130
158
160
161
171 (if it occurs not only in Fara 172 = L320 which later fused;
perhaps 171 is itself a fusion of SHA with some carrying device?) Taken as KAD4.
175 (perhaps more than one sign here?) (Krebernik: later divided into parts as IL2(.MA2).DUB2 and similar (SANGA2-6))
184
187
192
207 (see HUB2 ?)
210 (SHE squared, but what is in the middle?)
212 (Krebernik: later divided into parts as TU.GABA.LISH = ASAL2)
213
220 ?
222 ?
225 ?
228
238
245
247 ?
252
260
262 DARA3 x ?
265
266
297
298
299 (=300 ?)
310
315
319 (KA x '10')
328 (KA x ???)
332
347
348
349
357 (SHU2 x AN) x (SHAR2 x BA or IGI or later GAD?)
369
371
383 ?
386 (U x ???)
388 (U x ???)
390
393 (MI + number sign ?; variant of 394 ?)
408
410
416 (SHU4 x DUR2 or ??)
436
441 (incuded in the "head" is not PA, unlike #442)
456 (??? (occurs elsewhere) x TAK4 ?)
457
458
459
460 (these two are almost certainly distinct signs, given that the
presence vs. absence of the wedges at the base
distinguishes several other clearly distinct pairs of signs)

470 (I don't think it is related to LAK 69 and L#114,
but have no other suggestion yet)

478 (a variant of basket with carrying strap, here larger textile ?
see the last example under Fara 272, or in Labat #434)

488 (consider whether the distinction KASKAL vs .sheshshig markings,
correlate with the different readings and meanings)
488 = ?? DU.sheshshig without gunation of base)
491
492

502 (if not a variant of 500)
526 ?
535
539 (is there a distinction infixed PA vs. GAD in LAK 538)
541 (AB x ???)
552 (??? x PAP)
553 (??? x ???)
554 (??? x ???)
590 GISAL x TAG4 ?
592 URU x ???
600
605
610
632 (Labat #215b ??)
636 (perhaps = 637 ?)
645 ?
646
647 (Krebernik: LAK647 = SIGx, later replaced by SIG5)
652 (UKKIN x LAGAB or x GISH ?)
665 (LAK links to Labat #595, but I wonder about this link.
The examples shown in the box of commentary LAK #665
resemble rather another sign, and the bend of the arm is right
rather than left (if sign turned into original upright orientation))
669
692 (GA2 x a sign resembling MIR, SIG4, NIMGIR, and SUKKAL,
respectively ZATU 362, 454, 399, 492. Is the infixed part one of these?)
699 (GA2 x ???)
701 (GA2 x ???)
708
722 (GA2 x PAP)
727
741 (DAG x ???)
774 (??? x ASH)
800 (number '3' vertical wedges x KAR2 or SHE3 better than x TUG2,
is this combination known? another analysis?)

Again, thanks for any help...

Copyright © 2003. All Rights Reserved. Much of the analytical material on this web site will be included in an etymological study and concordance to cuneiform signs, to be published shortly, and may be used to validate the sign list, but should not be cited in any detail until it is published (guaranteed 2004 probably spring). Permission is granted for others to use the information on these web pages for preparation of a proposal to Unicode for a standard encoding of Cuneiform. The proposed sign list itself is free of any restrictions.