Cuneiform Sign KA₂

Gate or door, depending on context. In Sumerian writing, 𒆍 is conventionally labelled KA₂ or kan₄, and it can stand for the Sumerian word kan, “gate.” Akkadian scribes also used it as a logogram—a sign standing for a whole word—for bābu, their word for “gate” or “door.”

Cuneiform began in Uruk around 3400–3300 BCE as a way to keep records of goods and services. The gate reading is attested from Early Dynastic IIIa—an early Sumerian city-state period—through Hellenistic times; the sign’s written forms and the languages around it changed.

Which entrance do the surrounding signs name?

The neighboring signs narrow it down. An Old Babylonian lexical tablet gives KA₂ bar-ra for “outer gate,” KA₂ e₂-gal for “palace gate,” and KA₂.GAL for “city gate.” In modern scholarly transliteration, a dot joins signs into a compound; it is not punctuation from the clay tablet.

KA₂ is a catalog label in modern cuneiform study, not a sound guaranteed every time the glyph appears. The distinct sign 𒅗, labelled KA, is associated with “mouth”; the similar labels do not make the signs interchangeable.

What can I read if someone sends it?

It suggests “gate” or “door,” not a complete translation. Without surrounding text, the specific ancient reading remains uncertain.

Unicode assigns 𒆍 one character identity, but cuneiform fonts are designed for different historical periods and draw the wedges differently. What appears on screen is a typeface choice, not a photograph of one universal ancient handwriting.