Te (cuneiform)
Unicode character
The cuneiform te sign is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the Epic of Gilgamesh; it is also notable in the Hittite language, and for that language, besides its usage as te, it is a Sumerogram (logogram or ideogram), and is used as a component in the word for "envoy", (LÚ-ȚE-mu), or LÚ-ṬE-mi, . 'Envoy' is used in the famous Hittite annals, narrating the story of Prince Zannanza who after going to Egypt to become husband (and Pharaoh) to Queen Nefertiti, was intercepted and killed.
The usage of te in the Epic of Gilgamesh, is only for syllabic or alphabetic te, 124 times.
The sign also comes in two forms, with two pairs of the left 4-signs, or one above a row of 3-signs, either group tilted, down to the right.
References
Held, Schmalstieg, Gertz, 1987. Beginning Hittite. Warren H. Held, Jr, William R. Schmalstieg, Janet E. Gertz, c. 1987, Slavica Publishers, Inc. w/ Glossaries, Sign List, Indexes, etc., 218 pages.
Moran, William L. 1987, 1992.
“Te (cuneiform)” enters the record as unicode character. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what cuneiform, Unicode and character can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Te (cuneiform)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, cuneiform, Unicode and character provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q87556494. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1987 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “Te (cuneiform)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.