Cuneiform Sign UR₂ Inverted

Its reading depends on the text around it. 𒔼 is the inverted UR₂ sign in cuneiform. UR₂ is a sign name, not a translation; cuneiform signs could stand for objects, words, sounds, or syllables, so read this one in the language and passage around it.

Cuneiform developed in late-fourth-millennium BCE Mesopotamian administration, where clay records tracked goods and institutional accounts. The script later carried economic, religious, political, literary, and scholarly texts.

Why is 𒔼 called inverted?

“Inverted” describes its orientation in the sign family. Oracc’s UR₂@h entry cites BiMes 3, 15 reverse 2, line 5, but gives no universal gloss for this exact form. That tablet citation is an attested passage, not the sign’s first appearance.

Proto-cuneiform, the earliest stage of cuneiform, includes a UR₂ form; later sign lists record compounds containing UR₂. This connects the inverted form to a longer sign-family tradition, but it does not mean every form shares one reading.

How do I type 𒔼?

Use a cuneiform-aware transliterator. A font alone will not turn Latin keystrokes into cuneiform; it draws a character after an input method inserts it. A transliterator may need the language, period, or provenance to distinguish signs with the same transliteration.

Across cuneiform fonts, the same encoded sign may have drawings associated with different periods, regions, or styles. The picture changes; the character’s encoded identity does not.