# MA-ZA (mazza)

> corvée workers, labour gang (personnel term)

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

- Reading: mazza
- Confidence: Speculative. A proposed reading on a word too rare to test. Most occur only once.
- Root: [\*mass-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/S31/index.md>) 'forced labor, corvée levy, labor gang'
- Kind: Personnel
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: MA (ma) · ZA (za)

## Compared forms

- Akkadian: *massu* — massu 'corvée worker': idi LÚ.MEŠ ma-zi 'wages for the corvée workers' (Wiseman Alalakh 246:6; CAD M/1 s.v.)
- Hebrew: מַס *mas* — mas מַס 'corvée, labour gang': wayyaʿal ham-melek šəlōmōh mas 'King Solomon raised a levy' (1 Kgs 5:27)

## Attestations

- [ZA 10b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/ZA10b/index.md>): MA-ZA 5

## Commentary

ZA 10b .2–3 MA-ZA 5, after U-*49 6 and before MA-KI-DE-TE 5 (GORILA III 171), in a list that counts A-MI-TA ʾamita 'handmaid' 3. MA-ZA writes ma-za on primary values: Alalakh's z spelling, the geminate unwritten. A labour gang issued in a list, as Alalakh issues wages to the ma-zi (CAD M/1 327). Rivals: the Eblaite name ma-za (Pagan 1998); the Hurrian name mzy, ma-zi-i (DULAT 600). See ME-ZA and MI-ZA-SE.

## Same root

- [ME-ZA](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/ME-ZA/index.md>) (massu)
- [MI-ZA-SE](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/MI-ZA-SE/index.md>) (mizza-se)

## In the onomasticon

- [MA-ZA](<https://linear-a.ai/names/MA-ZA/index.md>): Title, Semitic

## References

- Reading: di Mino; CAD M/1
- Pagan, Joseph M. (1998), Ebla Electronic Corpus: Onomastic Data Base. Undena Publications (1998 disk); HTML edition by G. Buccellati, IIMAS / Cybernetica Mesopotamica (2012)
- 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
- CAD M/1: 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 1. The Oriental Institute, Chicago
- GORILA III: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1976), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 3: Tablettes, nodules et rondelles édités en 1975 et 1976 (GORILA III). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 3); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/MA-ZA/
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.