# SA-MA (samm-)

> herb, aromatic plant (commodity term in allocation lists)

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

- Reading: samm-
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*samm-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/2409/index.md>) 'plant; poison'
- Kind: Commodity
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: SA (sa) · MA (ma)

## Compared forms

- Akkadian: šammu(m) "herb, plant, drug, aromatic"—ubiquitous in administrative/pharmaceutical texts
- Hebrew: סַמִּים *sammîm* — sammîm (סַמִּים) "spices, aromatics" (Exod 30:34)

## Attestations

- [HT 10a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT10a/index.md>): SA-MA 4 — herbs, aromatic plants, 4
- [HT 52a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT52a/index.md>): SA-MA TE
- [HT 6b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT6b/index.md>): SA-MA 35
- [ZA 10b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/ZA10b/index.md>): SA-MA 5

## Commentary

HT 10a: the first entry under KU-NI-SU 'emmer', quantity 4, on an allocation tablet. samm- 'plant, herb', PS *samm-: Ug. smm 'perfume' (DULAT 751), Akk. šammu(m) 'plant, herb', the geminate mm written single. Rival: a place name, on the quantity 35 of HT 6b. Weak point: no commodity logogram stands with SA-MA on its four tablets.

## References

- Reading: di Mino
- 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

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