About the Book
THE DECIPHERMENT OF MINOAN LINEAR A - VOLUME I - PART IV
It is significant that at least three toponyms can be recognized in the Messara-valley that have a Hurrian origin. The oldest is Linear A
pa-i-to (HT 97a.3; HT 120.6). It is a genuine Hurrian toponym meaning
'He/She (a God/the King) has built (the palace)' and it is equivalent to Old Hurrian
ba-'à-ás-to/um in the Tis-atal inscription, analysed and normalised as
pa=ast=o=m, and translated as 'He (Tis-atal) has built (a temple)', cf. Th. Richter (
BGH, 285-286), s.v.
pa-,
paḫ- II [
passim] 'to build',
pa('/h)-, cf. G. Wilhelm, 1988b, 55. The following phases of phonetic development are likely:
ba-'à-ás-to/um =
pa('/h)=ast=o=m > pa=j=ast=o=m >
pa=j=(a)st=o=m >
pa=j=st=o=m (wr.
pa-i-to in Linear A). Transitional glide
-j- (
-i- in Linear A
pa-i-to) distinguished
-a- of the root
pa- from the
-a- of root-extension
-ast- and eventually the
-a- of
-ast- disappeared as a result of
syncope. For Linear B
pa-i-to (KN Da 1163+1400,
al.) the Old Hurrian ending in
=o=m had to be changed into a Hellenized form in
-oς (
-os):
Φαιστός (Phaistos). The ancient name of the palace of Hagia Triada,
ka-pa (frequent in Linear A, but only at Hagia Triada), was the first Hurrian toponym detected in Linear A and interpreted as
Ḫalba, Hurrian name of Aleppo (
Ḫalab in Semitic) with the Linear A ethnic
ka-pa-qe (HT 6a.4-5) = syllabic cuneiform
Ḫalbaḫe = alphabetic cuneiform
Ḫlbġ 'Man of
Ḫalba',
'Man of Aleppo' (Hurrian ethnic suffix
-ḫe).
Toponym
ka-pa and ethnic
ka-pa-jo (with Greek ethnic suffix
-yoς) were already known from the Linear B tablets from Knossos. Linear A
ku-mi (HT 110a.1) may well be the Minoan-Hurrian toponym
Kummi, present
Kommos, the Minoan harbour of Phaistos and Hagia Triada on the south coast of Crete, recently excavated by the Canadian G. Cadogan and his team. Cretan
Kummi is probably derived from the name of the city of
Kumma/e/i or
Kummiya in Anatolia, derived from Hurrian
kum- 'to build / erect / pile up'. If this identification is correct, it is after
ka-pa = Ḫalba (present Hagia Triada) the second Cretan site named after a famous predominantly Hurrian city in the Near East.
