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,
Diš (cuneiform) the "large-angled-stroke", type 2; (the long stroke of the sign is slightly, or majorly, foreshortened. In the Amarna letters, often down to 50 % of the "full stroke".). The high quality photo of EA 364, line 8, shows the length about 3/4 of a full stroke-length. The "ana", ("diš") sign usage in the "Epic of Gilgamesh" is as follows: "ana"-(151 times); "diš"-(6); "tiš"-(6); and 1-(87 times). Diš (cuneiform) The cuneiform sign has many uses in cuneiform texts. In the Amarna letters it is commonly used to denote "Male individuals". (Women are denoted by sal (cuneiform), . ) The sign is