Cuneiform Sign Limmu2

𒇹 is read limmu₂, a Sumerian word for “four.” In scholarly transliteration, the subscript ₂ distinguishes this sign from other entries with similar readings; it does not add a second quantity.

The sign is attested from Early Dynastic IIIb, an early period in Mesopotamian history, through later Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hellenistic records. Scribes used it to write four.

In royal formulas from Ur III, the period of Ur’s Third Dynasty, kings called themselves rulers of the world’s “four corners.” LIMMU₂ supplies the number in that claim, turning a count into a claim of universal rule.

Why does 𒇹 look different?

Cuneiform fonts can draw the same sign in different historical styles. A font based on Ur III, Old Babylonian, or Neo-Assyrian forms may look different from one using a standard reference drawing; a change in strokes alone does not establish a different sign or meaning.

An ordinary Latin keyboard has no universal key for 𒇹. A cuneiform-aware input method may let you search a sign list, a catalogue of cuneiform signs, for limmu₂. Its Latin-letter transliteration does not always resolve to one exact Unicode sign automatically, so verify the selected character when its identity matters.