# A-PI (ʾāpi)

> offering pit (for the dead)

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

- Reading: ʾāpi
- Confidence: Speculative. A proposed reading on a word too rare to test. Most occur only once.
- Root: ʾ-p
- Kind: Ritual
- Language: Hurrian
- Signs: A (a) · PI (pi)

## Compared forms

- Akkadian: *apu* — apu B 'hole, opening in the ground', NA ritual pit for offerings to the dead (CAD A/2 201)
- Hebrew: *II ʾôb* — II ʾôb 'spirit of the dead' (HALOT s.v.); baʿălat ʾôb (1 Sam 28:7)
- Hurrian: *abi* — abi 'trou, fosse' (Laroche 1980, 34)
- Hittite: *a-a-pi* — a-a-pi 'sacrificial pit' (HALOT s.v. II ʾôb, after Rabin)

## Attestations

- [KN Ze 16](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/KNZe16/index.md>): A-PI

## Commentary

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.

## References

- Reading: di Mino
- GLH: Laroche, Emmanuel (1980), Glossaire de la langue hourrite. Editions Klincksieck
- Milgrom, Jacob (2000), Leviticus 17-22: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. The Anchor Bible,3A,Doubleday
- CAD A/2: Oriental Institute (A. Leo Oppenheim, ed.) (1968), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, vol. A/2. 
- Owens, Gareth (1999), Late Minoan II Knossos: Minoan and/or Mycenaean?. Talanta,Supplementum Epigraphicum Mediterraneum 22,30–31,147–154
- HALOT: Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob; Richardson, M. E. J. (trans. and ed.) (1994), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, vols. I–IV. E. J. Brill, Leiden · New York · Köln
- GORILA IV: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1982), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 4: Autres documents (GORILA IV). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 4); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/A-PI/
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 add28e94.