SU-KI-RI-TA

PH Wa 32, a Phaistos nodule: SU-KI-RI-TA alone, four signs, undotted (GORILA II 90). HT Zb 158b, a jar: SU-KI-RI-TE-I-JA, the gentilic in -TE-I-JA. Linear B spells the place su-ki-ri-ta in the Knossos sheep tablets (KN Da 1091, Db 1324, 1327, Df 1325, Dn 1092, Dv 5232), with the ethnic su-ki-ri-ta-jo (KN C 911); DMic II 303 n. 6 records Godart’s reading of su-ki-ri-ta on this Phaistos sealing (PP 31, 1976, 42 ff.) and the scribe’s change of su-ki-ri-ta to pa-i-to on KN Da 1163. Identified with Σύβριτα in the Amari valley; Chadwick takes the name as not Greek (DMic II 303 n. 5). √s-g-r ‘shut, bolt’ on Ventris and Chadwick’s Sugrita, the vowel of KI dead: Heb. sāgar ‘shut’ (BDB 688), Akk. šigaru ‘bolt’ (HALOT 742), Pun. sgr ‘lock’; Ugarit syllabic GIŠ sú-qi-ri ‘bolt’, the same SU-KI-RI frame (GlOS 2, 190). Ugaritic personal name śgryn /Sugriyānu/ (KTU³ 4.825 i 13), s̀ an allograph of {s} (Tropper & Vita 2019, §2). Rival: SU- + KI-RI-TA qrt ‘town’ (Phoen., Pun. qrt, HALOT 1142; Syr. ḳerīt-, Brock. 695), SU- unexplained; Greek writes Semitic q as κ, and Σύβριτα has β/γ.