The Evolution of Demeter in Pre-Mycenaean Ritual Scripts: A Linguistic Analysis of Linear A Inscriptions AR Zf 1 , AR Zf 2 and KY Za 2

This preprint presents a preliminary epigraphic and linguistic analysis of the Linear A forms I-DA-MA-TE and DA-MA-TE attested on the Middle-to-Late Bronze Age inscriptions AR Zf 1, AR Zf 2 (Arkalochori cave), and KY Za 2 (Kythera peak sanctuary). Utilizing a strict comparative methodology based on the most conservative Indo-European branches, this study demonstrates that these sequences preserve the earliest recoverable evidence for the goddess Demeter, thereby tracing the structural foundations of the classical Olympian pantheon deep into the pre-Mycenaean Aegean.Crucially, this analysis identifies the Pelasgians—attested in the Homeric tradition (Odyssey 19, 175–177) as an indigenous component of Bronze Age Crete—as the historical carriers of this conservative Indo-European superstrate, which acted upon a non-Indo-European (Hurrian) substrate. For a comprehensive mapping of this linguistic stratigraphy, the reader is referred to the author’s forthcoming major monograph (Schümann, in prep.).This paper tracks the explicit geographical and phonological trajectory separating the older central Cretan compound I-DA-MA-TE ("Ida-Mother") from the phonetically reduced, maritime-expanded form DA-MA-TE. This specific truncation is identified as a diagnostic areal development within the Linear A corpus, capturing the exact historical moment where a localized Pelasgian mountain cult shed its regional toponymic constraints to become a panhellenic, supraregional deity. Finally, the study provides a detailed religion-typological excursus, demonstrating how archaisms within the mainland cults of Demeter Melaina and Demeter Erinys (analysed via Old Lithuanian nértėti) serve as the faithful mythological preservation of the pelasgian ritual vocabulary documented on Crete.This paper forms the fourth pillar in an ongoing series of linguistic re-evaluations of the Linear A corpus, building directly upon the author's previous structural and grammatical analyses of CRZf 1 (Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17145125), PRZa 1 (Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17273613), and ZA Zb 3 (Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17443266).