From bjartekal@ah.telia.no Wed Jan  6 18:10:34 1999
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 20:51:55 +0100
From: Bjarte  Kaldhol 
To: aegeanet@acpub.duke.edu
Subject: AEGEANET Minoans at Alalah?

To my great astonishment the Alalah tablets from 15th century Northern Syria, which I could not find time to study until now, contain a lot of Hurrian or Hurroid names. Most of these names are probably either Hurrian or substrate names. Many place names are of Hurrian type, which means that the Hurrians must have lived in the Alalah area for a long time. There are very few Semitic names in the texts I have studied, but I am not an expert and might have overlooked some -- A-mur-ra-pi is conspicuous, however.

Among the Hurrian or Hurroid names, several are known from Minoan Linear A documents:

Titiku from ZA Zb3 (the Zakros pithos)
Tarina from HT 10
Kubaba (Ku-pa3-pa3) from HT 88 (read like this in GORILA)
Pitaja from HT 6a (written Bi-ta-ia in cuneiform)
Sama from HT 6b, HT 10a and HT 52a (I equate s and shin)

Titiku was a popular name. A Titiku is mentioned six times at different places like Tuhul, Zalaki (a Hurrian or substrate place name), and Zulute (Hurrian). One Titiku is a lú SIMUG (smith). There is a Hurrian root tit- and the ending -ku is very common in Nuzi names.

Tarina is mentioned once and lives in the town Alime. Possibly substrate name.

Kubaba lives in the town Ariante (an -nth-name?). Pitaja's home town is unknown. Hypocoristic, common type, possibly = Bull. Sama is the father of one Araia. Sama (cp. Sima) is a typical Hurrian "shortened name", also known from Nuzi in Mesopotamia. In Nuzi Personal Names p. 250 it is related to Vedic saman-, but this is probably pure speculation, from a time when researchers thought everything must be explained as either Indo-European (preferably) or Semitic.

As for the namesakes of these five men in Crete, the following is known: Titiku is the last word in the wine-pithos inscription from Upper Zakros. In this position one would expect a verb or an adverb. Oddly, perhaps all the words in this inscription could be names. Didikase looks like a typical Hurrian name in -se (shortened for -senne = brother) , but it could also be a place name. Asamune, if Hurrian, must be a noun. Ase is a name known from HT 81 and 93. Atai-301-deka could be a name where the first element is the Hurrian word for 'father' (atai). Aremarena must be a noun if Hurrian; it can perhaps be compared to the name Aramara from the town Taimi near Alalah. Looked at with Hurrian eyes, this inscription seems to lack a verb! Tarina is found together with Sama in HT 10 in a kunisu tablet. Cp HT 86 and 95. Kunisu could be the Mesopotamian word meaning emmer wheat. It is thought to be Semitic, but since it is attested only in Akkadian and Aramaic, how do we know it is Semitic? In HT 86 and 95 it could be the name of a person, or perhaps a place name. (Nothing strange about that; Hurrians were fond of endearment names.) Sama is also found in HT 6b, together with Pitaja in 6a. Two Hurrians in the same tablet! They are receiving or delivering figs.

There are a few more Alalah names that should be mentioned: Tatte could be related to Tati in HT 26 (i/e are interchangeable in both scripts).

Sibikiri could be related to Sipiki in ZA 4, ZA 5, and ZA 15.
Unaia could be related to unaa in KN Zb 40. Hurrian root meaning 'to come'
etc.
Irupseni could be related to Iruja in HT 7a (common hypocoristic form).
Atanabidi seems to contain an element Atana plus  bidi. Possibly not
Hurrian. But Atanabenti is definitely Hurrian. He is a lú A&GAB (leather
worker, shoemaker etc., cp. Greek askos and Hurrian 'asge' ).
Era is a man's name at Alalah. Cp. Linear B e-ra and e-ra-ne?
Eamati (Ea plus mati = wisdom) could be compared to Idamate in AR Zf 1 and
2.
Ananumini could be related to ananusijase in HT Zb 159.
Kitan could be related to kitanasijase in PE Zb 3.
The word purena (written in several ways) could be related to Linear B
porena.
Minuani looks like Minua plus the suffix -ni. Minua = accusative of Minos.
Cp. also Urartian Meinua. Minahhamu and Mina(a)n may contain a similar
root.
Many names with a second element -kiase could be related to the common
Linear A  second element -zase.
Place names ending in -nt- and -ase/-ise (Ariante, Telise, Nurmanase,
Siturase, Arenase) could be related to the well-known pre-Greek types
(Surinthos, Tylissos). Some of them are definitely Hurrian, others perhaps
pre-Hurrian, very old names. See Goetze in Festschrift Friedrich,
Heidelberg 1959, 'Hurrian Place Names in -s(s)e. And cp. W. von Soden:
Einführung in die Altorientalistik, Darmstadt, 2. Auflage 1992, p. 14,
where Ugarit is said to be an -nt- name of the same type as Corinth. As for
Ugarit, cp. ukare in PE 1, from Petras east of Sitia.

Many of these comparisons must be taken cum grano salis, for there is also a Maria (a man) in the Alalah texts!

Now, what does all this mean? Were there Minoans at Alalah or should we rather suppose an east to west movement and talk about Hurrians in Crete? I know what the Niemeiers would answer (see Aegaeum 18), and I think I know what A. Bernard Knapp would say. And, of course, there are those who insist that Linear A cannot yet be read. Please excuse me for having built a big house of cards again.

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