A-ZU-RA

KN Zc 7, an inked vessel: A-KA-NU-ZA-TI · DU-RA-RE · A-ZU-RA ·, the divine name after ‘this bowl’ and DU-RA-RE, before JA-SA-RA-A-NA-NE. ZU, AB 79, is the one sign dedicated to ṯ and covers the whole ṯ-series, as Old Babylonian PI writes wa, we, wi and wu (Huehnergard 2011, 69); elsewhere scribes wrote ṯ in the T-series (di Mino, Ya Diktu 16–17 n. 27). A-ZU-RA writes ʾAṯirat (di Mino, Ya Diktu 40). Final RA writes the live /a/ of the feminine ending, which rules out ʾaṯirt- (Amarna a-ši-ir-te, Aramaic ʾăšērtā). ʾAṯirat is the West Semitic form: Ugaritic ʾaṯrt /ʾaṯiratu/ (Huehnergard 2012, 142) and Amorite a-še-ra-tum, whose second vowel ‘is not elided as in Akkadian’ (George and Krebernik 2022, 130). Rival: ʾAṯrat, with the middle vowel syncopated, as ᵈaš-ra-tu at Ugarit (RS 20.24: 20), a god list in Akkadian forms, ᵈaš-ra-tum in Old Babylonian, and 18 of the 95 Amarna spellings of ʿAbdi-Aširta, his own EA 60 among them (Hess 2025, 1–2, n. 14). Final -t is unwritten, and the ṯ is kept against the š of Akkadian and Hebrew.