# \*23M (mūru)

> young bull, head of cattle (live livestock logogram; MU-onset abbreviation of \*mūru)

A Linear A word in the Linear A Lexicon. The reading is a proposal and carries its tier.

- Reading: mūru
- Confidence: Probable. Fits the word’s contexts and has a close external comparison, without an independent control.
- Root: [\*muhr-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/2243/index.md>) 'foal'
- Kind: Commodity
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: \*23M
- Rank: #56 of the top 100

## Compared forms

- Akkadian: *mūru* — mūru 'foal; calf' (CAD M/2 229); mīru A 'young bull' (CAD M/2 109)

## Attestations

- [HT 114a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT114a/index.md>): \*23M 3 — young bull, head of cattle
- [HT 121](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT121/index.md>): \*23M 3 — young bull, head of cattle (live livestock)
- [HT 30](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT30/index.md>): \*23M 1
- [GO Wc 1b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/GOWc1b/index.md>): \*23M 5
- [KH 87](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/KH87/index.md>): \*23M 1
- [KH Wc 2069](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/KHWc2069/index.md>): \*23M — young bull, head of cattle (live livestock logogram)

## Commentary

HT 30, HT 114a and HT 121 set it after VIN in whole numbers (1, 3, 3); KH 87 *23M 1, GO Wc 1b *23M 5, and the roundel KH Wc 2069 bears it alone. TU, which counts cattle products in fractions, never shares a tablet with it. mūru 'young bull, head of cattle', MU writing its ū: Akk. mūru 'foal (donkey or horse); calf', from Old Akkadian on (CAD M/2 229–30; eBL mūru I 'young animal; young bull; foal'). Middle Assyrian ledgers write it with the ox determinative, {gu₄}mu-ru{nita₂} 'young bull' (MARV 2 6), and count it by head: 67 mu-ru ša MU '67 calves, yearlings' (KAJ 289:11); the calf sense runs on into Neo-Assyrian, so the Cretan form needs no early split of foal and calf. Ug. mrủ 'fattened, fatling' (DULAT 563); Heb. מְרִיא mǝrīʾ 'fatted steer' (1 Kgs 1:9; Amos 5:22). Rival: *ʾalpu 'cattle' (2113), with the sign a picture, not an abbreviation. See MU-RU.

## Same root

- [MU-RU](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/MU-RU/index.md>) (mūru)

## References

- Reading: di Mino
- CAD M/2: Oriental Institute (A. Leo Oppenheim and Erica Reiner, eds.) (1977), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, vol. 10, M, part 2. The Oriental Institute; J. J. Augustin
- DULAT: del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Brill, Leiden/Boston (Handbook of Oriental Studies 1/112); Third Revised Edition, tr. and ed. Wilfred G.E. Watson; 2 parts

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/*23M/
Licence: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Cite as: di Mino, Tom. 2026. Linear A Lexicon. Plasma AI. https://linear-a.ai/. Data: kaphtor, commit 50525edd.