# MA-RU-ME (marūm)

> the wool (substrate commodity noun with Semitic mimation)

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

- Reading: marūm
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: substrate (non-Semitic wool word maru)
- Kind: Commodity
- Language: Aegean, Aegean substrate
- Signs: MA (ma) · RU (ru) · ME (me)

## Compared forms

- Greek: μαλλός *mallos* — μαλλός (mallos) 'flock of wool' < Minoan /maru/ (Salgarella 2022; Nosch & Weilhartner 2026)
- Linear A: A559 = MA+RU composite wool logogram (*146 Raison-Pope)

## Attestations

- [HT 24a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT24a/index.md>): MA+RU-ME 10 — the wool (quantities 10 and 6; a third entry on .4 breaks after ME)

## Commentary

HT 24a, under the heading KU-PA₃-RI-JA · KI-MA+RU-[, writes the word with the wool ligature MA+RU (A 559) followed by ME (GORILA I 43): .2 MA+RU-ME 10, .3 MA+RU-MẸ 6, .4 PA-SA-RI-JA · MA+RU-MẸ[, broken after ME. The ligature is the wool logogram AB MA+RU (Nosch and Weilhartner 2026, 122–123, 131), the Minoan wool word maru that Greek keeps as μαλλός, Cretan μάλλυκες in Hesychius (Salgarella, Mix and Match, n. 8); -ME adds mimation, the spelling convention of JA-SA-SA-RA-ME yaššaram. The two complete entries carry quantities (10, 6) under two section headings, a wool distribution. Mimation doublet of syllabic MA-RU (HT 117a).

## References

- Reading: di Mino; GORILA I; Nosch and Weilhartner 2026; Salgarella 2022
- GORILA I: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1976), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 1: Tablettes éditées avant 1970 (GORILA I). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 1); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris
- Nosch, Marie-Louise; Weilhartner, Jörg (2026), The common thread: textiles and wool logograms in Linear A. In E. Salgarella & V. Petrakis (eds.), The Wor(l)ds of Linear A, AURA Supplement 15, Department of History and Archaeology, NKUA, Athens, pp. 115–136
- Salgarella, Ester (2022), Mix and Match: A Combinatory (Re-)Classification of Linear A Signs. Talanta,54,31–52

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/MA-RU-ME/
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.