that the Sumerians had used before them, but they were probably pronounced as Akkadian words when the texts were read. Something analogous occurs when an English speaker reads $2.00 as “two dollars.” A Spanish speaker would read the same symbols as “dos dólares.” Our modern numeral symbols are simply current examples of ideograms.11 The Akkadian language is important for biblical studies on several levels. In the first place, Akkadian is the earliest attested Semitic language, and its decipherment