# SA-SA-ME (šašamā)

> sesame (seed-spice commodity)

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

- Reading: šašamā
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*sim-sim-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/762/index.md>) 'sesame'
- Kind: Commodity
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: SA (sa) · SA (sa) · ME (me)

## Compared forms

- Ugaritic: 𐎌𐎌𐎎𐎐 *ššmn* — ššmn 'sesame'
- Akkadian: *šamaššammū* — šamaššammū (šamšamū) 'the principal oleiferous plant and its seed' (CAD Š/1 301)
- Linear B: sa-sa-ma (MY Ge 602, Mycenae spice series)
- Greek: σήσαμον (sēsamon)

## Attestations

- [HT 23a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT23a/index.md>): SA-SA-ME ¹⁄₁₆ — sesame

## Commentary

HT 23a, a ledger of cyperus, oils and wine: SA-SA-ME ¹⁄₁₆, after *21F-RI-TU-QA ¹⁄₁₆. The second SA is dotted, and GORILA I 41 records SA [units] ME as a less satisfactory reading. šašam- 'sesame', the reduplicated š-š-m: Akk. šamaššammū (CAD Š/1 301), Ug. ššmn 'sesame' with the afformative -n (DULAT 834), Linear B sa-sa-ma σάσαμα on the Mycenae Ge tablets of aromatic plants, beside ku-mi-no 'cumin' (DMic II 284), as KU-MI-NA stands in Linear A. Rival: flax and its seed, CAD's sense of šamaššammū, 'the principal oleiferous plant, probably flax' (CAD Š/1 301). One attestation.

## References

- Reading: di Mino; GORILA I; CAD Š/1; DULAT; DMic II
- DMic II: Aura Jorro, Francisco, Diccionario Micénico, vol. II (CSIC 1993). 
- 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 Š/1: Oriental Institute (Erica Reiner, ed.) (1989), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, vol. 17, Š, 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/SA-SA-ME/
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.