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120 SUMERIAN GRAMMAR
sar-nis,. 30 sár, sar-usu,. 40 sár, sar-nimin,. 50 sár, sar-ninf),. 60 Sár,
according to the text from which these values are taken, CT. XII 24 b
1 ff., is pronounced sar-mus = 216,000 = 60", but according to II R. 451
28 f. su-us-sa-ar, and MEISSNER, APR., pl. 58, col. VIII 15 sa-sár,
where the word for 60 is SUS, placed before sar. In Hilprecht, op. laud.,
pl. 17 obv. IV 8 and rev. IV 7, Sár mus or sussar is replaced by the Sár­
gal or the great sar, and the next higher order, perhaps 216,000 X 60
= 60' = 12,960,000, is sár-gal su-nu-tag '.
Fractions. § 173. In the primitive lapidary style 1/2 appears to have been
written with the same club-shaped sign employed for 1 butin the per­
pendicular posi tion 2. This primi tive method of designating 1/2 exists
only on the prehistoric tablet AO. 2753 and (if we have not to sup­
pose an error of the scribe) in TSA. no· 23 obv. III 4, V2. This
method of indicating 1/2 was replaced by the more natural method of
tracing a horizontal line across the perpendicular club-shaped sign for
1/2 which gave rise to the cuneiform +. The sign seems really to
be identical with the sign + mas,. at least the syllabars iranslate mas
(+) by maslu, meslu, me(;lanu, and the loan-word masu is a syn. of
tu'amu, 'twin'. 1 sha11 assume that at least one of tbe Sumerian words
for 1/2 was mas, perhaps in fact the only word in actual use.
The fractions 1/3, 2/3, 5/(j are based upon the denominaior 6. 1/6
has the form (=(, =< and r or one sixth of a circle, i.e., sixty
degrees. The word for 1/6 is sus a value common to both the late
signs < and r, whence the loan-word sussu = 1/6,. but because 1/6 of
a circle is equivalent to 60 degrees, sussu cameto mean 'sixty'::.
sus must have been lhe pronunciation for 1/6 since not only is 2/6 or
1/3 expressed by the dual of the loan-word, but we find the signs
1. TH.-DANGIN, 1. C., interprets 'the great ~ár intangible'. If we assume the
~aJ'-ual o~u-"u-tay = 216,OUOX 60, the intermedia te unit 216,1 OUX 10 is omitted.
CT. Xli 24 has, however, two units above 216.000, i. e., the ~ár-ual 1 and the
sár-Ual 2. In this systom the sar-gall = 2,16U,000 aml the sur-yal ;,;e= 12,960,000.
:!. So al leasl in the earliest text".. Before the signs were tnrned to lhe Ieft
90 degrees, the sign must have appeared as ---o( (lranscribed into cuneiform).
3. Snch is lhe explanatiori of TH.-DANGIN, OLZ. 1909, 383.
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