# PI-TA-RA (bidāla)

> trade agents, deputies, a personnel group drawing grain; rivals bitāri 'portions' and the names Paṭir, Batūl

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

- Reading: bidāla
- Confidence: Speculative. A proposed reading on a word too rare to test. Most occur only once.
- Root: [\*badal-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/K0010/index.md>) 'exchange', 'separate'
- Kind: Personnel
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: PI (pi) · TA (ta) · RA (ra)

## Compared forms

- Ugaritic: 𐎁𐎄𐎍 *bdl* — bdl(m) 'substitute, lieutenant, a kind of (sales) representative'; syllabic LÚ.MEŠ DAM.GÀR : bi-da-lu-ma 'merchants' (GlOS 1, 110)
- Eblaite: *ba-da-lum baddāl* — ba-da-lum baddāl 'merchant' (GlOS 1, 110)
- Emar: *rival bi-it-ru* — rival bi-it-ru 'portion', pl. bi-ta-ri (GlOS 1, 130)
- Amorite: rival PAṬIR-UM Paṭirum 'released' (Gelb 1980, no. 1151); BATUL-UM Batūlum 'bachelor' (no. 1153)

## Attestations

- [HT 96a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT96a/index.md>): PI-TA-RA 1 — trade agents, a personnel group drawing grain; rivals bitāri 'portions', a recipient's name

## Commentary

HT 96a .4 PI-TA-RA · 1, whole, in a grain list after SI-MI-TA GRA 5, RU-SA 4, *323-*317 1 and before *323-*344 1 (GORILA I 157). bi-da-la, the sign sequence of Ugarit bi-da-lu-ma, glossing LÚ.MEŠ DAM.GÀR 'merchants', and of the name DUMU-bi-da-la-ya (RS 15.0009); Ebla ba-da-lum 'merchant' (GlOS 1, 110). A body of agents drawing grain, cf. MA-KA-RI-TE 'merchants' (HT 117a). Rivals: bitāri 'portions', Emar bi-ta-ri (GlOS 1, 130); the name Paṭir 'released' (Gelb 1980, no. 1151; Ebla ba-du-ri₂, Pagan 1998, row 1090), with PI for pa; the name Batūl 'bachelor' (Gelb 1980, no. 1153); Ug. btlt 'virgin' (DULAT 248), for which the slot gives no cue. One witness.

## In the onomasticon

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

## References

- Reading: di Mino; GlOS 1; Gelb 1980; Pagan 1998; ORACC aemw/ugarit
- ORACC: Oracc Steering Committee, Oracc: The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. University of Pennsylvania Museum; CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise stated
- AS 21: Gelb, Ignace J. (1980), Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite. Assyriological Studies 21,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
- 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
- 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
- GlOS 1: Sanmartín, Joaquín (2019), A Glossary of Old Syrian, Volume 1: ʔ – ḳ. Languages of the Ancient Near East 8/1,Eisenbrauns (Pennsylvania State University Press), University Park

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/PI-TA-RA/
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.