Cuneiform Numeric Sign One Half Gur

In Umma records, it marks two bariga of capacity. The earliest evidence for this exact form comes from Umma during Ur III, a period about 2100–2000 BCE. Scribes used it in administrative records of grain and other measured goods. In this local system, four smaller capacity units called bariga made one gur, so the sign represented two bariga.

The sign's Unicode name expresses this as one-half of a gur, while digital corpora may label it 2 bariga. Those are two notations for the same quantity. Gur capacity varied by place and period, so its name alone cannot give a reliable modern liter amount.

Is 𒑤 related to the Elamite fraction signs?

No; 𒑣 is its documented partner in Umma's capacity system. The quarter-gur sign marks one bariga; after 𒑤 it forms the documented three-quarter-gur sequence, adding one bariga to the two already marked. The nearby 𒑥 and 𒑦 are Elamite signs for one-third and two-thirds, not alternate forms of this sign.

The Unicode block places these signs near each other for filing, not because they share an origin. A Unicode analysis considered grouping the quarter- and half-gur signs with the Persepolis-era Elamite fractions, but identified inscriptions point to the earlier southern Mesopotamian setting. Persepolis is an ancient site in Iran. Read the signs by their inscriptional setting, not their Unicode neighbors.