[Note:
Outline:
Part 1: Notes from study
Part 2: Personal takeaways and insights
Part 3: Minoan Spells, translated
PART 1: Notes from Study
Study: "Ya Diktu: Grammar of the Minoan Peak Sanctuary Libation Formula" by Tom di Mino (Published September 2026)
Background: The study begins by laying the foundation that Minoan Crete had used Linear-A for records at the Temple of Konossos for logistical tracking and ritual script. Tablets of many kinds were found at the Temple of Konossos and peak sanctuaries along the Cretan mountaintops.
The Holy Grail (quote from study): "Of all the inscriptions found at Iouktas, IOZa2 is the most complete example of one such libation formula, engraved on a fragmentary serpentine stone libation table found in the vicinity of its altar.2 Recent scholarship asserts the formula to be “the richest source of information about the grammar of the language(s) of Linear A” (Thomas 2020, 1)."
The collected fragments are digitized and can be viewed at [lineara .xyz]
Misclassification: Initial studies into Linear-A found relations to East Semitic script in the translation of the word "wheat" while shortly after, a West Semitic word was translated, in "wine". attributions to other languages, such as Akkadian, leads to a problem with fluidity of the script. However, a script exhibiting behaviors of both suggests a common ancestor in the form of Proto-Semitic script. In this case, di Mino has presented a case for Linear-A to be a derivative from a Central Semitic language.
Linguistic family tree: di Mino suggests that the central government of Minoan Crete requested Central Semitic scribes from Egypt to create Linear-A to assist in logistics for resource distribution and ritual use for prayer stones and talismans.
[Quote from study:] "If any one culture could call itself a direct successor to Minoan Crete, it would be the Iron Age Phoenicians." Thus, the tree to Minoan states Proto-Semitic to West-Semitic to Central-Semitic to Linear-A. By contrast, the tree to Phonecian and Hebrew states Proto-Semitic to West-Semitic to Central-Semitic to Northwest-Semitic to Canaanite to Phonecian & Hebrew (individually)
Evidence (Quote from study): "Its core vowel set, /a, i, u/, which makes up 80.8% of the Linear A corpus’s vowel signs,53 hints that the Canaanite Shift had not yet occurred, aligning with a Central Semitic language spoken by the first sailors of Tyre, Sidon, and the Nile Delta who landed, traded, and settled on the shores of Crete sometime in the 3rd millennium BCE."
IOZa2 Translation, according to di Mino: "I make myself a dwelling—O Diqqitu!—in (the spirit of) righteousness. Behold, my assembly, in the presence of sacred worship. May she be accepted for you."
PART 2: Personal takeaways & insights
A. The matriarchal theological center of the Ya Diktu confirms a long-time speculation that Minoan culture had a reverence for women in their society as cornerstones for social ideals; "Minoan society does not invest in idealizing women as mothers … Above all, emphasis is on the social rather than the biological, the public rather than the domestic”
B. The parallelisms of Hanni'baal to Annibas have a direct tie in this translation. in this case, it seems to imply that Myceneaean greece found the remnants of the Konossos shrine and established an evolution of Ba'al to Zeus over the previous reverence of the matriarchal theology of the Minoans.
C. I haven't seen this talked about anywhere, but I found this passage to be particularly enlightening:
"The name then means “She-who-gives” and is, in all likelihood,the etymon of Greek Ἀθήνα, the Goddess who bestows wisdom." Particularly interesting that Athena came into mythology so early. Has anyone traced how far back Athena goes?
PART 3: Minoan Spells, translated
With IOZa2 translated as such, di Mino further translated two Minoan spells: Spell #32: Against Asiatic Disease (LMP 11,4–7), and Spell #33: Against Samānu Disease (LMP 11,8–12)
Spell #32: Against Asiatic Disease (LMP 11,4–7)
Semetic reading: šēn ti-kappup wa-yšūʿātī yamīn tirqaqī
English translation: "O tooth that curves itself—my salvation!—right hand, spit out (the dis-ease)!”
Spell #33: Against Samānu Disease (LMP 11,8–12)
Semitic reading: wa-b(u)haqī śĕʾēt sabbū yaṣʾa ḥanqatu rpʾī paʿūrī Mayyā
English translation: "Turn away! Go out, strangling-demon! My Healer—I cry out to Mayyā!”
Outline:
Part 1: Notes from study
Part 2: Personal takeaways and insights
Part 3: Minoan Spells, translated
PART 1: Notes from Study
Study: "Ya Diktu: Grammar of the Minoan Peak Sanctuary Libation Formula" by Tom di Mino (Published September 2026)
Background: The study begins by laying the foundation that Minoan Crete had used Linear-A for records at the Temple of Konossos for logistical tracking and ritual script. Tablets of many kinds were found at the Temple of Konossos and peak sanctuaries along the Cretan mountaintops.
The Holy Grail (quote from study): "Of all the inscriptions found at Iouktas, IOZa2 is the most complete example of one such libation formula, engraved on a fragmentary serpentine stone libation table found in the vicinity of its altar.2 Recent scholarship asserts the formula to be “the richest source of information about the grammar of the language(s) of Linear A” (Thomas 2020, 1)."
The collected fragments are digitized and can be viewed at [lineara .xyz]
Misclassification: Initial studies into Linear-A found relations to East Semitic script in the translation of the word "wheat" while shortly after, a West Semitic word was translated, in "wine". attributions to other languages, such as Akkadian, leads to a problem with fluidity of the script. However, a script exhibiting behaviors of both suggests a common ancestor in the form of Proto-Semitic script. In this case, di Mino has presented a case for Linear-A to be a derivative from a Central Semitic language.
Linguistic family tree: di Mino suggests that the central government of Minoan Crete requested Central Semitic scribes from Egypt to create Linear-A to assist in logistics for resource distribution and ritual use for prayer stones and talismans.
[Quote from study:] "If any one culture could call itself a direct successor to Minoan Crete, it would be the Iron Age Phoenicians." Thus, the tree to Minoan states Proto-Semitic to West-Semitic to Central-Semitic to Linear-A. By contrast, the tree to Phonecian and Hebrew states Proto-Semitic to West-Semitic to Central-Semitic to Northwest-Semitic to Canaanite to Phonecian & Hebrew (individually)
Evidence (Quote from study): "Its core vowel set, /a, i, u/, which makes up 80.8% of the Linear A corpus’s vowel signs,53 hints that the Canaanite Shift had not yet occurred, aligning with a Central Semitic language spoken by the first sailors of Tyre, Sidon, and the Nile Delta who landed, traded, and settled on the shores of Crete sometime in the 3rd millennium BCE."
IOZa2 Translation, according to di Mino: "I make myself a dwelling—O Diqqitu!—in (the spirit of) righteousness. Behold, my assembly, in the presence of sacred worship. May she be accepted for you."
PART 2: Personal takeaways & insights
A. The matriarchal theological center of the Ya Diktu confirms a long-time speculation that Minoan culture had a reverence for women in their society as cornerstones for social ideals; "Minoan society does not invest in idealizing women as mothers … Above all, emphasis is on the social rather than the biological, the public rather than the domestic”
B. The parallelisms of Hanni'baal to Annibas have a direct tie in this translation. in this case, it seems to imply that Myceneaean greece found the remnants of the Konossos shrine and established an evolution of Ba'al to Zeus over the previous reverence of the matriarchal theology of the Minoans.
C. I haven't seen this talked about anywhere, but I found this passage to be particularly enlightening:
"The name then means “She-who-gives” and is, in all likelihood,the etymon of Greek Ἀθήνα, the Goddess who bestows wisdom." Particularly interesting that Athena came into mythology so early. Has anyone traced how far back Athena goes?
PART 3: Minoan Spells, translated
With IOZa2 translated as such, di Mino further translated two Minoan spells: Spell #32: Against Asiatic Disease (LMP 11,4–7), and Spell #33: Against Samānu Disease (LMP 11,8–12)
Spell #32: Against Asiatic Disease (LMP 11,4–7)
Semetic reading: šēn ti-kappup wa-yšūʿātī yamīn tirqaqī
English translation: "O tooth that curves itself—my salvation!—right hand, spit out (the dis-ease)!”
Spell #33: Against Samānu Disease (LMP 11,8–12)
Semitic reading: wa-b(u)haqī śĕʾēt sabbū yaṣʾa ḥanqatu rpʾī paʿūrī Mayyā
English translation: "Turn away! Go out, strangling-demon! My Healer—I cry out to Mayyā!”