Cuneiform stylus or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic wedge shape of the strokes. Certain signs to indicate names of gods, countries, cities, vessels, birds, trees, etc., are known as determinatives and were the Sumerian signs of the terms in question, added as a guide for the reader. Proper names continued to be usually written in purely "logographic" fashion. The earliest known Sumerian king whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets is Enmebaragesi of Kish. Surviving records only very gradually become less fragmentary and more complete for the following reigns, but by the end of the pre-Sargonic period,
Ma (cuneiform) Ma (cuneiform) The cuneiform ma sign, is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the "Epic of Gilgamesh". In the Epic it is also used as the sumerogram MA, (for Akkadian language "mina", "manû", a weight measure, as MA.NA, or MA.NA.ÀM). The usage of cuneiform "ma" in the "Epic of Gilgamesh", is only exceeded by the usage of a (cuneiform) (1369 times, and 58, A (sumerogram), versus 1047 times for "ma", 6 for MA (sumerogram)). The high usage for "a" is partially a result of the prepositional use for "a-na"-(Akkadian "ana", "to, for", etc.); ""i"", also has