# MI+JA+RU (murru)

> myrrh (murru), compound logogram

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

- Reading: murru
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*marār-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/K0153/index.md>) 'bitter' 1, 'myrrh' 2
- Kind: Commodity
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: MI (mi) · JA (ja) · RU (ru)

## Compared forms

- Akkadian: *murru* — murru "myrrh, bitter resin" (CAD M/2 222; OB medical/ritual texts, c. 2000–1600 BCE)
- Hebrew: מֹר *mōr* — mōr (מֹר) "myrrh" (Exod 30:23, Song 1:13, 3:6, 4:6)
- Aramaic: *murrā* — murrā "myrrh"
- Arabic: *murr* — murr "myrrh, bitter"
- Egyptian: *mꜣrw* — mꜣrw "myrrh" (attested from 2400 BCE, imported from Punt)
- Greek: myrrha (μύρρα)—Semitic loan
- Ugaritic: 𐎎𐎗 *mr* — mr 'myrrh' (DULAT 561f.)
- Amarna: ŠIM.ZAR.MEŠ : mu-ur-ra, a Canaanite gloss (GlOS 2, 49)

## Attestations

- [HT 23a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT23a/index.md>): MI+JA+RU ≈ ¹⁄₆ — myrrh
- [HT 23b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT23b/index.md>): MI+JA+RU — composite, as HT23a
- [HT 32](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT32/index.md>): MI+JA+RU 1
- [HT 35](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT35/index.md>): MI+JA+RU ¹⁄₃
- [HT 81](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT81/index.md>): A-SE MI+JA+RU ≈ ¹⁄₆
- [KH 12](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/KH12/index.md>): MI+JA+RU ¹⁄₂
- [KH 36](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/KH36/index.md>): KA MI+JA+RU 4
- [KH 60](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/KH60/index.md>): MI+JA+RU ¹⁄₅

## Commentary

A ligature of three signs, on eight tablets at two sites (HT 5, KH 3), always in sequences of oils and aromatics beside *308 šamnu, OLE+NE, OLE+RI, OLE+TA, CYP and VIN, in the small fractions of aromatics (⅙, ⅓, ½). murru 'myrrh', from pan-Semitic √m-r-r 'bitter'; three signs for a two-consonant root make the compound ideographic, not phonetic. Exod 30:23 mōr-dərōr heads the anointing-oil recipe, the place MI+JA+RU takes in the Linear A aromatic lists, and the Uluburun wreck (c. 1300 BCE) carried aromatic resins between the Levant and the Aegean. ME-MI-JA-RU on ZA Zg 35 is a prefixed form. See MA-RI-RE-I.

## Same root

- [MA-RI-RE-I](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/MA-RI-RE-I/index.md>) (marīrēy)

## References

- Reading: di Mino; GlOS 2
- CAD M/2: 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 2. The Oriental Institute; J. J. Augustin
- 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
- GlOS 2: Sanmartín, Joaquín (2024), A Glossary of Old Syrian, Volume 2: l – z. Languages of the Ancient Near East 8/2,Eisenbrauns (Pennsylvania State University Press), University Park

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/MI~2BJA~2BRU/
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.