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). Utilizing a strict comparative methodology based on the most conservative Indo-European branches, notably the Baltic material, this study demonstrates that these sequences preserve the earliest recoverable evidence for the goddess Demeter, tracing her structural foundations deep into the pre-Mycenaean Aegean long before her subsequent assimilation into the Greek pantheon. Crucially, this analysis identifies the Pelasgians—attested in the Homeric epic tradition (Odyssey 19.175–177; Schümann's edition, Kösel 1954) 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 Mediterranean substrate. For a comprehensive mapping of this complex 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 transition where a stable, pre-eruption framework of seasonal fertility rites expanded into a universal Pelasgian deity—a process structurally and seismically galvanized by the collective trauma of the Minoan eruption of Thera. Finally, the study provides a detailed religion-historical excursus demonstrating how bizarre and archaic remnants within the mainland cults of Demeter Melaina ("The Black One") and Demeter Erinys ("The Wrathful One") serve as the faithful mythological preservation of the Pelasgian ritual vocabulary and seasonal agricultural calendar documented on the Cretan altar stone of Prassas (PR Za 1, via Old Lithuanian steigti and ašara). The text contextualizes these developments with the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, wherein the goddess explicitly claims her Cretan provenance.