# ME-ZA (massu)

> corvée gang, labour gang (personnel term); the word of MA-ZA

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

- Reading: massu
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*mass-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/S31/index.md>) 'forced labor, corvée levy, labor gang'
- Kind: Personnel
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: ME (me) · ZA (za)

## Compared forms

- Akkadian: *massu* — massu 'corvée worker': idi LÚ.MEŠ ma-zi 'wages for the corvée workers' (Wiseman Alalakh 246:6); LÚ.MEŠ ma-as-sa.MEŠ (EA 365:14) (CAD M/1 327)
- Hebrew: *mas* — mas 'corvée, labour gang' (1 Kgs 5:27)

## Attestations

- [HT 10a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT10a/index.md>): ME-ZA 3 — corvée gang, labour gang, 3
- [HT 85b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT85b/index.md>): ME-ZA 1 — corvée gang, labour gang (personnel term); the word of MA-ZA

## Commentary

HT 10a .8 ME-ZA 3, the last issue under KU-NI-SU 'emmer', after DA-RE 16½, U-*325-ZA and DA-RI-DA 8 (GORILA I 20–21); HT 85b ME-ZA 1, among single entries under KI-KI-RA-JA beside QA-*310-I qaynī 'smith' (GORILA I 130–131). Alalakh writes the gang ma-zi and issues it grain (CAD M/1 327), as HT 10a issues ME-ZA 3. The word of MA-ZA mazza (ZA 10b); ME for ma is a vowel mismatch only. Rival: the Hurrian name mzy, ma-zi-i (DULAT 600).

## Same root

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

## In the onomasticon

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

## References

- Reading: di Mino; CAD M/1
- EA: Moran, William L. (1992), The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press
- 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 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

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/ME-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 add28e94.