/aruza^?/, á-ru-za

This lexeme is so far solely attested on two of the pithoi found in Altıntepe. Both date to the 8th century BCE.

[AH.B.]

unknown

/aruza?/

á-ru-za

ALTINTEPE pithoi, pithos 1 & pithos 3 (Altıntepe)

The interpretation of the spelling is somewhat uncertain, because the pithoi are the only place of attestation for this lexeme, and the word has yet to be connected to other lexemes in HLuw. and/or the other Anatolian languages. Still, the choice of <ru> (*412) leaves little room for doubt over the quality of the second vowel.

[AH.B.]

Found in a pithos building, what remains of the largest pithoi appears to list the volume the respective pithoi contained in measure terms. Laroche 1971a:59 hence suggested ‘contenu, volume, mesure’ based on the context, but the precise meaning of /aruza^?/ remains obscure until further attestations are found.

[AH.B.]

The pithoi may list measures in their stem form, comparable to Urartian (Hawkins, Morpurgo Davies & Neumann 1973a:11f.). Beyond that, the stem formation and grammatical gender of /aruza^?/ remain unclear.

[AH.B.]

This lexeme may perhaps be a loanword from Urartian, because it co-occurs with the measure terms /turuza^?/ and /ahharku^?/, whose origin may be traced back to Urartian (Laroche 1971a:55-61; Hawkins, Morpurgo Davies & Neumann 1973a:11f.).

[AH.B.]