What 𒑥 means
One third of a measured quantity. In an Elamite record, the item or unit supplies the whole: 𒑥 marks a share within that measurement, rather than a standalone fraction. The wider administrative system also recorded grain, sales, land transactions, taxes, payments and ritual supplies.
At Susa, numerical tablets and tablets in the earlier Proto-Elamite script, a local writing system, are attested from about 3200 BCE; the script remained in use until about 2700 BCE. These dates trace the wider numerical tradition, not the first appearance of this exact sign.
Did Elamite fraction notation change later?
The fraction stayed one third, but its written expression could change. Persepolis Treasury tablets dated 492–458 BCE show Elamite scribes using Old Persian, another ancient Iranian language, for the words for one third, one fourth, one eighth and one ninth; they may have kept an Elamite word for half. This shows a change in written language and notation, not a change in this sign's value.
Specialist archival number sign; the recorded unit gives its fraction a clear whole.
Alone, it leaves the measured whole unstated.
Part of the collection
Who writes 𒑥
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Questions people ask
1Why does 𒑥 show as a box?
A font without support for this Cuneiform character can show a missing-character box. The character is still the same text; a font with Cuneiform coverage can display it.
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How to type or find 𒑥
- Also called
- 1/3(DIŠ)~e
- Search it as
- 1/3 · one third · Elamite fraction · cuneiform fraction · fraction sign
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𒑥\12465Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.