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,
Ib (cuneiform) Ib (cuneiform) The cuneiform sign ib, (or ip) is a common-use sign in the "Epic of Gilgamesh", the Amarna letters, and other cuneiform texts. Its common usage is syllabic for "ib" (or "ip"), or alphabetic for "i" or "b"/"p"; the "i" is also exchanged for "e" when spelling specific words in the Akkadian language. Cuneiform "ib" also can be found as sumerogram "URTA", (a capital letter (majuscule)), and for example it is used in the "Epic of Gilgamesh" for the god's name: Ninurta, spelled NIN.URTA. Cuneiform "ib" has other sub-uses in the "Epic of Gilgamesh". The following can be found: