Cuneiform Numeric Sign Eight ŠAR₂

It multiplies the ŠAR₂ unit by eight. Englund’s 2004 study of cuneiform accounting gives one ŠAR₂ as 3,600, making the eightfold form 28,800 under that convention. Treat that decimal as a useful gloss, not a universal reading for every tablet.

These numerals grew from administrative record-keeping. Around 3300–2900 BCE, proto-cuneiform, an early form of cuneiform writing, recorded goods, rations, measures, and time. Clay counters and early number tablets developed alongside bookkeeping, the setting for the later ŠAR₂ numerical family.

By the late third millennium BCE, increasingly abstract base-60 (sexagesimal) notation could connect different measurement systems. From about 2000 BCE, place-value forms, where a mark’s position affects its value, appear in mathematical texts and later Babylonian astronomy. This family spans practical accounts and advanced calculation.

Why isn’t it always 28,800?

The tablet’s units and number system set its value. Early cuneiform numbers could carry different values for grain, weight, area, or time. Read 𒐪 alongside the tablet’s unit system and neighboring signs before converting it to decimal.

The numbered 2(ŠAR₂)–9(ŠAR₂) notation means the numeral multiplies the unit inside the parentheses. Metrological lists pair 8(šar₂) with capacity and surface units, and the Sumerian King List includes 8 šar₂ in regnal-year totals. These are compound numerical values, not ordinary standalone digits.

Why does the sign vary by font?

Unicode identifies the sign; fonts draw its historical form. Unicode’s cuneiform guidance (UTR #56) treats a sign as an abstract character whose style varies across periods and regions, so one code point does not promise one tablet-era appearance.

If 𒐪 appears as a box or fallback mark, the character is still present; the font lacks the needed coverage. For a historically specific transcription, choose a font designed for that period rather than treating one reference drawing as the only authentic form.