What 𒀩 means
A made likeness: image, figure, statue, or figurine.
Context decides the English gloss. Lexical senses include “image,” “form,” “statue,” “figurine,” and “deified statue”; Akkadian tradition pairs ALAN with ṣalmu, meaning “effigy.” ALAN is a scholarly sign reading, not a caption for the sign’s drawn shape.
When does 𒀩 appear in the record?
The lexical record spans Early Dynastic IIIb through Hellenistic entries.
An Early Dynastic royal inscription uses alan for a ruler’s statue, and a Sumerian literary passage describes a woodcarver making one. A proto-cuneiform sign-list entry called ALAN-A exists, but its direct connection to this sign is not established.
Why can 𒀩 look different across fonts?
Its drawn form can vary by period and style while its identity stays the same.
Unicode’s cuneiform encoding model identifies the sign while fonts supply its visual form. A missing-glyph box means the font lacks Cuneiform coverage; it does not mean a different sign was encoded.
Formal and scholarly: ALAN is a sign-list reading for ancient Sumerian writing.
Is 𒀩 the name of a god? No. “Deified statue” is one sense; the sign itself is not a god’s name.
Who writes 𒀩
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Related characters
3
Questions people ask
1Why does 𒀩 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
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How to type or find 𒀩
- Also called
- alam · alaŋ · alag
- Search it as
- alan · cuneiform alan · alan statue
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𒀩\12029Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.