A-PI

KN Ze 16, the only word, incised at eye level on the last block of the dromos of the Kephala tholos, before the burial chamber (GORILA IV 138; Owens 1998–99, 148–149). A and PI clear; nothing before A or after PI, and the divider Owens reports after PI is not drawn. Akkadian apu B ‘hole, opening in the ground’, the NA ritual pit where food for the spirits of the dead is laid and honey, oil, beer and wine poured (CAD A/2 201); at Emar an offering is made before the abū (Milgrom 2000, 1768); Hebrew II ʾôb ‘spirit of the dead’, which Rabin derives from Hittite a-a-pi ‘sacrificial pit’ (HALOT s.v.; baʿălat ʾôb, 1 Sam 28:7). The word travels (Hurrian abi, Laroche 1980, 34; Hittite a-a-pi; Luwian āpit-), so it names the pit, not the writer’s language; final I matches abi and needs the genitive -i in Akkadian. Rival: a personal name. One attestation.