Linear A inscription from Crete’s Mount Juktas names ritual and pre-Dionysian deity, study says
A newly published study decodes a Linear A inscription on a small stone offering table found at the peak sanctuary of Mount Juktas in Crete, presenting what researcher Michael Schumann describes as one of the most complete ritual formulas surviving in the Linear A corpus. The study, released as a preprint, argues the text names a deity linked to the later god Dionysus and points to a shared ritual tradition between two Minoan sacred mountains.
A small object with a dense inscription
The inscription, known as IO Za 2, is carved into a miniature offering table made of dark green serpentinite measuring just 4.3 centimetres wide and 1.9 centimetres tall. According to the study, the object dates to roughly 3,500 years ago. The text runs around the four vertical sides of the table, while the top surface holds a small circular hollow used for pouring liquid offerings such as wine, oil or honey. Unlike many comparable inscribed objects, which carry only brief formulas, this text is relatively extensive, combining invocations, expressions of lament and references to sacred places and deities.
Discovery at the Juktas peak sanctuary
The offering table was found during systematic excavations directed by archaeologist Alexandra Karetsou at Mount Juktas during the 1970s and 1980s. The peak sanctuary, located near the Palace of Knossos, was an open-air cult site where libations, burnt offerings and votive gifts were made. The table was recovered from an area containing accumulated ash, charcoal and pottery fragments associated with a monumental altar. Nearby, excavators also uncovered a deep natural fissure in the limestone bedrock containing figurines, vessels and animal remains.
Excavation layers indicate the object was in use during the Neopalatial period, spanning Middle Minoan III to Late Minoan I, according to the study. However, the study notes that the script shows more archaic paleographic features, suggesting it may have been carved some time before its final deposition.
Reading the ritual formula
According to Schumann’s analysis, the inscription shares structural features with other Linear A offering-table texts found at sites across Crete, including Tylissos, Palaikastro, Prasa and the Idaean Cave. He interprets the opening phrase, A-TA-I-JO-WA-JA, as a divine title referring to bull-related rites, and reads the following word, JA-DI-KI-TU, as referring to Mount Dikte in eastern Crete, the mountain later associated in Greek tradition with the birth cave of Zeus.
The central section of the text, JA-SA-SA-RA-ZA U-NA-KA-NA-SI, is translated by Schumann as an instruction to “pour forth the tears,” treating ritual lament as a defined stage of the ceremony. This is followed by I-PI-NA-MA, rendered as “my libation,” and the closing word SI-RU-TE, which the study interprets as an optative wish meaning “may it flow abundantly,” rather than a command.
A partially damaged passage naming two deities
The final section of the inscription, which is partially damaged, yielded what Schumann describes as the study’s most significant findings. One side reads TA-NA-RA-TE-U-TI-NU, followed by I-DA and a gap, which the study restores as [-MA-TE-QE].
Schumann interprets TA-NA-RA as meaning “sacred place,” and TE-U as “of god,” linking it to the Indo-European root deiwos, from which terms such as the Sanskrit deva, Latin deus and Greek Zeus derive. He identifies the name TI-NU with the Mycenaean form di-wo-nu-so, the earliest attested form of the name of Dionysus, describing TI-NU as an earlier version of the god later known to the Greeks as Dionysus.
The restored name I-DA[-MA-TE-QE] is based on comparison with other Linear A inscriptions—AR Zf 1, AR Zf 2 and KY Za 2—that contain the name I-DA-MA-TE, which Schumann had previously proposed as an earlier form of Demeter. The connective element -QE, meaning “and,” is common in Linear A administrative texts. On this basis, the study concludes the inscription names two deities, Tinu and Ida-Mate, associated with a specific shrine.
Implications for Minoan religion
Schumann’s study draws several conclusions. It states that the IO Za 2 inscription offers one of the most complete ritual formulas in the Linear A corpus, allowing reconstruction of a sequence: invocation of a deity, lament, liquid offering and a wish for abundance. The text also explicitly links two sacred mountains, since the deity is called “of Dikte” while the offering itself was deposited at Juktas—evidence, according to the study, that Minoan sanctuaries were part of a wider religious network rather than isolated sites.
The study further suggests that the identification of Tinu with the later Dionysus, and of Ida-Mate with Demeter, points to religious continuity spanning more than a thousand years, indicating these deities were part of the island’s indigenous religious landscape before the arrival of Mycenaean influence in Crete.
Method and ongoing decipherment
Linear A remains an undeciphered writing system. Schumann’s approach compares it with other Indo-European languages, particularly Baltic languages such as Lithuanian, Latvian and Old Prussian, as well as Luwian and Hittite. For this inscription, the study revises the phonetic values of two signs, A301 and AB013, assigning the latter the value ZA instead of ME, changes the author says are supported by paleographic and comparative evidence and are necessary for the proposed translation to be internally consistent.
The offering table is held at the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion under inventory number HM L3557.
Summarizing the findings, Schumann wrote that the text “combines lament, libation, sacred geography and divine invocation into a single ritual form,” describing it as “one of the most elaborate examples of the Minoan libation tradition known to date.”
