Cuneiform sign KUŠU₂

The text around it chooses the reading. In Sumerian, an ancient Mesopotamian language, kušu₂ names a creature identified as a crab or snapping turtle. Cuneiform sign lists also give 𒆵 the readings turtle and weathervane, so “crab” is one possible translation, not a fixed meaning. The subscript ₂ distinguishes sign names with the same reading; it is not a count.

Cuneiform began in early Uruk records as a way to track goods and services; its signs later stood for whole words as well as sounds. The earliest listed lexical evidence for KUŠU₂ is Early Dynastic IIIa; the creature entry continues in records from Old Akkadian, Lagash II, Ur III, Old Babylonian, Middle Assyrian, Neo-Assyrian, and Neo-Babylonian periods.

Genre changes the reading. In later Babylonian astronomy, KUŠU₂ is linked with the Crab/Cancer; 𒄑𒆵𒆠 spells the place name Umma in lexical and administrative texts. These are context-specific uses, not definitions for a lone 𒆵; the surrounding signs and text type settle the reading.

Why can 𒆵 look like 𒉄?

Styles vary by period, and some later forms merge. Unicode’s cuneiform guidance uses representative glyphs rather than one drawing that matches every tablet. Cuneiform fonts may draw the same encoded sign differently; a font without cuneiform support may show a missing-glyph box.

Another cuneiform sign, NAGAR 𒉄, differs from KUŠU₂ by one upright, wedge-shaped stroke in descriptions by Assyriologists, scholars of ancient Mesopotamia. Their shapes can merge in Late Babylonian writing. When an image is ambiguous, compare the sign name and the text’s context, not the outline alone.

A transliteration—a scholarly spelling in Latin letters—records a reading, not an exact keyboard spelling: kušu₂ by itself produces Latin letters, not 𒆵. To enter the sign, choose its identity in a cuneiform-aware input method.