# PA-KU / PU-KO (pak / pukku)

> flask, vial (small libation/oil vessel)

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

- Reading: pak / pukku
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*pak-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/294/index.md>) 'bottle, mug'
- Kind: Vessel
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: PA (pa) · KU (ku) · PU (pu) · KO (ko)

## Compared forms

- Hebrew: פַּךְ *pak* — pak פַּךְ 'flask, vial' — pak ha-šemen, the anointing-oil flask (1 Sam 10:1; 2 Kgs 9:1-3)
- Ugaritic: *bk rb* — bk rb 'a large vessel' (KTU 1.3 I 12), in the passage that pairs ks // krpn

## Attestations

- [KN Zc 6](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/KNZc6/index.md>): A-DI DA-KI-TI-PA-KU NI-JA-NU
- [HT 31](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT31/index.md>): \[?\]-TI-SA PU-KO \*410-VS \[…\] — flask, vial

## Commentary

Two spellings of one vessel word. PU-KO stands alone on the HT 31 vessel inventory directly before *410-VS, the only vessel on the tablet without a name ligatured to its sign. PA-KU (KN Zc 6, an inked cup, written as one unit after DA-KI-TI) is a segment of continuous writing on a dedicatory object, where an oil-vial word fits: Hebrew pak 'flask' (HALOT 926), the vessel of royal anointing (1 Sam 10:1; 2 Kgs 9:1–3). PU-KO pukku keeps the older vowel that Hebrew pak lost after the labial; -KO writes final -ku, as -RO does in KU-RO. Ugaritic bk rb 'a large vessel' (KTU 1.3 I 12) stands in the same passage as krpn, the counterpart of HT 31's KA-RO-PA₃. Rival: bk is commonly compared with Greek βῖκος, and Smith and Pitard (2009, 108) call it 'apparently an Indo-European Kulturwort'.

## References

- Reading: di Mino; HALOT; Smith and Pitard 2009
- KTU: Dietrich, Manfried; Loretz, Oswald; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2013), Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani und anderen Orten / The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places (KTU³). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 360/1); ISBN 978-3-86835-014-2
- Smith, Mark S. & Pitard, Wayne T. (2009), The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume II: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU/CAT 1.3-1.4. Vetus Testamentum Supplements 114,Brill
- HALOT: Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob; Richardson, M. E. J. (trans. and ed.) (1994), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, vols. I–IV. E. J. Brill, Leiden · New York · Köln

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/PA-KU~20~2F~20PU-KO/
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.