The cuneiform Aš sign, is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Epic, it has the following meanings, besides aš:[1]
aš
dil
ina
ṭel
AŠ
Some special considerations for a single "cuneiform sign" are as follows. In Egyptian hieroglyphs, the space for a group of signs (in cuneiform, a group of individual strokes), is called (quadrat)-block. Among cuneiform signs, only a handful of signs (specifically the individual 'strokes', horizontal, vertical, "wedge", 'half-strokes', etc.) are found in single usage. For aš specifically, (the full-length, horizontal stroke) its highest usage in the Epic of Gilgamesh is for the preposition ina (for in, into, etc.; confer for a specific "ina" usage (by Kovacs), Gilgamesh flood myth#Alternative translations). The specific usage numbers for the sign's meaning in the Epic is as follows: aš-(4), dil-(3), ina-(284), ṭel-(1), AŠ-(1).[2] The high usage as the preposition may be for space considerations, but it should be considered that the Epic of Gilgamesh was also a "training document" for scribes, over hundreds of years, so the multi-functioning of signs may also have been in issue, (one cuneiform sign substituted for the preposition: i-na, of two signs.)
The most common use of cuneiform aš in the Amarna letters is for the spelling of "šapāru", for to send, to send in writing.[3] Besides the usage for "šapāru" in EA 362 (pictured), it is also used to spell šapāru in EA 34, titled The Pharaoh's reproach Answered,[4] line 8, Obverse - spelled, ta-aš--tap-ra.
Amarna letter EA 28, titled Messengers Detained and a Protest,[5] uses aš for the spelling of "aššum",[6] Akkadian language because of-(concerning, regarding), and in EA 28, line 24, obverse, Paragraph III, Tushratta, (of Mitanni) continues in his letter: ... "regarding" (the)-Messengers (i.e. Pirissi and Tulubri)....