Cuneiform Sign ANŠE

Usually “donkey”; some contexts mean a broader equid.

ANŠE is a scholarly Latin-letter label for a Sumerian cuneiform sign value. Cuneiform is an ancient writing system made of wedge-shaped marks, often pressed into clay. Capital letters mark a sign value; they do not guarantee how every tablet pronounced it. For “donkey or equid,” check the period, archive, and neighboring signs: sign lists give “donkey,” while some records use anše more broadly for a horse-family animal. Name the glyph ANŠE; translate a tablet from its context.

When does ANŠE first appear?

Its earliest ancestor is proposed, not securely identified.

The earliest attestation of ANŠE is not a securely matched first glyph. Archaic Uruk III/Jemdet Nasr records around 3100–3000 BCE form part of the evidence. One reconstruction links an equid sign called ZATU 297 to later ANŠE; another says the identification lacks lexical support. The proposed ancestry remains unsettled.

The administrative use of ANŠE was practical: early tablets tracked goods, rations, labor, and animals. Regional writing traditions used different donkey terms, while compounds could distinguish kinds of equid.

How do I type ANŠE?

Use a character map or cuneiform sign-list input method.

Typing the Latin label ANŠE enters transliteration letters, not this cuneiform character. A sign-list or transliteration input method can map the label to a Unicode sign; a regular Latin keyboard does not.

Cuneiform fonts follow period- and region-specific sign styles. They may draw 𒀲 differently while representing the same encoded character.