SumerianGrammar

66 CHAPTER TEN
Unlike 600, 36,000 has not become a new basic number. 72,000
is “ár-ni“ “twenty 3600” and not *“two 36,000”. 180,000 is “ár-ninnû
“fifty 3600”. See Powell 1971, 73–77.
216,000: [“ar∞ ge“(d)] = “sixty 3600, also “ár-gal “big 3600”. [“ar∞ ge“(d)]
is written ”ÁR × ªGÉ” or ”ÁR × U-gunû until Ur III and later on
”ÁR.ªGÉ”. See Powell 1971, 73–78.
The highest number attested is 216,000 × 60 = 12,960,000, “ár-gal-
“u-nu-tag-ga “big 3600 that has not been touched”. See Powell 1971,
76–78.
In practice, “ár-gal occurs in Ur III administrative documents with
the count of reed-bundles; cf., e.g., “ár-gal, 4 ”ÁR × U, 2 “ár 4 600,
7 60, 27 = 216,000 + 144,000 + 7200 + 2400 + 420 + 27 =
367,647 gi-sa “reed-bundles” P. Artzi/S. Lewy, Atiqot 4 (1965) no.
8 iv 3 = 10–11.
Note: It is interesting to note the increase of the number 3600 −> 36,000 −>
216,000 in royal inscriptions from ªGirsu in the phrase “when god’s hands seized
(the ruler) from among n people”: [“à-l]ú-“ár-ta (Enmetena, CIRPL Ent. 32 i 2''),
“à-lú-”ÁR × U-ta (Erikagina, CIRPL Ukg. 4/5 vii 18), “á-lú-”ÁR × U-gunû-ta
(Gudea, Stat. B iii 10). It would, of course, be absurd to refer this diachronic
increase of symbolic figures to a corresponding growth of the population.
Sumerian numerals, as to be expected, had special forms in Emesal.
Emesal voc. III 131–133 (MSL 4, 39) notes [did], [imma] and
[ammu“] for “1, 2, 3”; for [mu“] “60” see ibid. 134–138. More
details in Powell 1971, 51–53; Schretter 1990, 154 ff. nos. 53, 70,
71, 190, 331, 395, 397.
A peculiar system, rising in groups of three, for 1 to 7 is found
in the (reconstructed) series me-er-ga “1”, TAKA “2”, pe“ “3”; pe“-
bala “beyond three” “4”, pe“-bala-ge 4 “beyond three + one” “5”,
pe“-bala-ge 4 -ge 4 “beyond three + one + one” “6”, pe“-pe“-ge 4 “three
three one” “7”: NBGT IV 33, 41–45 (MSL 4, 164 f.), and see
Powell 1971, 28–32 with lit. Origin (and application) of this system
are still unknown.
10.3. ORDINAL NUMBERS
In principle, cardinal numbers may also function as ordinal numbers,
cf. Gudea Cyl. A xxi 1 é-a(k) sá-min-nam nam-mi(-n)-sì “(Gudea)
verily laid the second square (of the ziggurat)”, followed by sá-e“ 5 ­
àm (xxi 5) up to sá-umun 7 (xxi 11).