Cuneiform Numeric Sign Eight Ash

It means eight in the cuneiform AŠ number series. Sign-list spellings 8(aš) and ussu₂ name this form; AŠ is a scholarly label for the series, not the English word “ash.” TAB.TAB.TAB.TAB describes four repeated parts of a written form, not four separate characters. The same sign could also work as a logogram—a sign standing for a whole word—and be read in Akkadian, an ancient Mesopotamian language, as šamānat, their word for eight.

The numerical tradition behind this sign grew out of record-keeping. Proto-cuneiform, the earliest stage of cuneiform writing, appears on clay tablets from Uruk, a city in ancient Mesopotamia, around 3350–3000 BCE; those early signs recorded transactions using local measuring systems. This exact four-TAB spelling is listed among forms attested after the Old Babylonian period. That history points to a developing scribal system, not a single invention.

Which cuneiform eight belongs to the AŠ series?

𒐆 is the AŠ form; other cuneiform eights are different signs. 𒐍 is Eight Dish and 𒐓 is Eight U, while 𒑄 is a separate Ussu variant. Each represents eight, but they belong to different sign series or forms; keep the exact glyph when transcribing a tablet or matching a sign list.

Read the sign with its neighbors. Before a named unit, it can stand for eight of that unit; in a base-60 (sexagesimal) calculation, it can contribute to a larger number. Its value is eight within the cuneiform system, not necessarily the modern digit “8” on its own.