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,
A (cuneiform) , connected (ligatured, attached to "a")-, ligatured to cuneiform "a" is the ia (cuneiform)--. It has usages in the Akkadian language for words starting with "ia", for example "iā'u", (English "mine"), "iāši", (English "(to) me"), and "iāti", (English "me"). In the Amarna letters "ia" is also used as a suffix: -ia, for example Amarna letter EA 325, ""To King (Pharaoh)-Lord-mine" (-ia), "God-mine", "Sun-God-mine", ..." ("A-na Lugal-bēlu-ia, An-meš-ia, An-UTU-ia, ...") The Amarna letter usage of cuneiform "a" has the same high usage for Akkadian language "ana" (a-na) as does the "Epic of Gilgamesh". Two other high usages for "a" and typical