Mercer Samuel A.B. A Sumero-Babylonian Sign List: to which is added an Assyrian sign list, and a catalogue of the numerals, weights and measures used at various periods

Columbia University Press, 1918. — 262 p. — (Columbia University oriental studies 14).The object of this Sign List is a very practical one, namely, to
arrange all Sumerian and Babylonian signs in such a manner as to
enable the student to find them with comparative ease. Assyrian signs
have long ago been excellently classified. Beginnings have been made
in the classification of Sumero-Babylonian signs. Scheil, Thureau-
Dangin, Amiaud and Mechineau, and Toscanne have done excellent
work. Their lists, however, were not compiled with a view to practicability.
The most recent work on the subject is one by George
A. Barton, whose chief object was to discuss the origin and development
of Babylonian writing. His sign list is, accordingly, incidental, and
not arranged with the practical needs of the translator primarily in
view.
In the present work an attempt has been made to collect and arrange
all independent Cuneiform signs. Cuneiform writing is of such a
nature as to have allowed much latitude in the writing of many signs.
For example, a sign with parallel wedges may have two or more such
parallel wedges. No attempt has been made to record all such variants;
first, because variations are necessarily almost endless, without
being important, and, secondly, because of a desire to keep the List
within reasonable bounds. Hence, only independent signs, and those
signs whose variations would place them in a different order in the
List, have been collected.