INTERPRETATION / LANGUAGES / Writing / 671c
1: G. Buccellati, November 2002

Palaeography


Vertical flipping

     Individual signs are sometimes flipped vertically in the seal legends. This feature is not applied consistently to all signs, but only to some, as for instance in h2, one of the seals of the nurse Zamena.


Alternative sequences of sign components

     The sign keš3 (#546) consists of three components, which appear in alternative, equivalent sequences. To the listings published in AfO 42-43, p. 27, and especially WZKM 86, Fig. 5, add now the seal legend h7.


Splitting of signs within lines

     Signs belonging to the same word may be split vertically within the same case (i.e., the second sign is written below the first one, as in the following cases:

-gu-ta in li-il-gu-ta, r1, the royal inscription of Atal-shen, line 20.
-ni-tum in ZA.GIN3-ni-tum, q7, and q8, both seals of Uqnitum.
-nin-SA in I-nin-SA.TU, h4, the seal of Innin-shadu.


Splitting of individual signs

     The following sign is split within the same case, in such a manner that the second half is slightly higher, to the right of the second half of the sign:

TU in I-nin-SA.TU, h4, the seal legend of Innin-shadu.