ERIM (army Sumerogram)

ERIM is the capital letter-(majuscule) sumerogram for the Akkadian language word "army", or "troops". The akkadian language word for army is ("sābu"-using s-dot, the special s); consequently the cuneiform character for ERIM is also equivalent to "sab", "zab", etc.-(also using s-dot).

The cuneiform-compound for the enclosed use of the 'army' cuneiform character is the akkadian language word for "battle", or "warfare", akkadian "tāhāzu"-(also a sumerogram: MÈ-no. 098, Parpola). In the Yašdata letter with the place-name for Hannathon, the determinative is used at the beginning of the word battle, then tāhāzu is spelled ta-ha-(zu).

Epic of Gilgamesh

The cuneiform character for 'army'-'sab' is used 19 times in the Epic of Gilgamesh tablets-(chapters). It is used only once as 'zab'; also only once as ERIM, for "armies" in Chapter XI, as ERIM-mesh(the plural), for "men, troops".

Amarna letter usage

In the 1350 BC Amarna letters, the army sumerogram ERIM is used in the formulaic introduction to the pharaoh of ancient Egypt-(mostly Amenhotep IV-"Akhenaten", or his father Amenhotep III). The addressing is towards the 'good health'-Shalom-(Akkadian language "šālāmu"-'to be safe') of the list of pharaoh's charges, and near the end of the list his "troops", or armies are addressed: as ERIM-mesh; (mesh is the plural as "s", in the Akkadian language). The more notable kings used this formal intoduction to the pharaoh, for example Tushratta of Mitanni, the "King of Alashiya"-(now known as the island Cyprus); also the king of Babylon, Burna-Buriash; also Kadashman-Enlil I of Babylon.

A more distinctive use of the army cuneiform character in the Amarna letters, is in the cuneiform-compound for the word 'battle', as a determinative in Amarna letter no. 245, concerning a story about Yašdata, with the subject being the Habiru man, Labaya.

References

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ee also

*Hannathon–Amarna letter using the determinative, and spelling out of word for "battle"-"warfare"/-("tāhāzu")—Topic: Labaya, and Yašdata.