ERIM (Sumerogram)


ERIM is the capital letter- Sumerogram for the Akkadian language word army, or "troops". The akkadian language word for army is ; consequently the cuneiform character for ERIM is also equivalent to sab, zab, etc.-.
The cuneiform-compound for the enclosed use of the 'army' cuneiform character is the akkadian language word for battle, or warfare, akkadian "tāhāzu"-. In the Yašdata letter with the place-name for Hannathon, the determinative is used at the beginning of the word battle, then tāhāzu is spelled ta-ha-.

Epic of Gilgamesh

The cuneiform character for "army"-sab is used 19 times in the Epic of Gilgamesh tablets-. It is used only once as zab; also only once as ERIM, for "armies" in Chapter XI, as ERIM-mesh, for "men, troops".

Amarna letter usage

In the 1350 BC Amarna letters, the army sumerogram ERIM is used in the formulaic introduction to the pharaoh of ancient Egypt-. The addressing is towards the 'good health'-Shalom- of the list of pharaoh's charges, and near the end of the list his "troops", or armies are addressed: as ERIM-mesh;. The more notable kings used this formal introduction to the pharaoh, for example Tushratta of Mitanni, the "King of Alashiya"-; also the king of Babylon, Burna-Buriash; also Kadashman-Enlil I of Babylon.
A more distinctive use of the army cuneiform character in the Amarna letters, is in the cuneiform-compound for the word 'battle', as a determinative in Amarna letter no. 245, concerning a story about Yašdata, with the subject being the Habiru man, Labaya.