# DA-MA-TE (damat)

> the Tower; the unprefixed base of I-DA-MA-TE

A Linear A word in the Linear A Lexicon. The reading is a proposal and carries its tier.

- Reading: damat
- Confidence: Speculative. A proposed reading on a word too rare to test. Most occur only once.
- Root: [\*dim-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/656/index.md>) 'tower' 1, 'borough' 2
- Kind: Ritual
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: DA (da) · MA (ma) · TE (te)

## Compared forms

- Ugaritic: 𐎄𐎎𐎚 *dmt* — dmt (I) 'tower' (DULAT 272)
- Akkadian: *dimtu* — dimtu 'tower; fortified area; district' (CAD D 144)
- Linear B: da-ma-te, PY En 609.1 (pa-ki-ja-ni-ja to-sa da-ma-te DA 40), read δάμαρτες 'household estates' or Δαμάτηρ (= Δημήτηρ) as a unit of land (DMic I 151)
- Greek: cf. Δαμάτηρ (Dor., Arc., Boeot.), Δωμάτηρ (Aeol.), dat. Δαμμάτηρ (Thess.), Δημήτηρ (Hom.) 'Demeter' (DELG 272–273)

## Attestations

- [KY Za 2](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/KYZa2/index.md>): DA-MA-TE

## Commentary

KY Za 2, a stone vessel from Kythera, DA-MA-TE alone. The base of I-DA-MA-TE (AR Zf 1, 2), read 'the tower': Ug. dmt (I) 'tower', in 'the tower of the mother of(?) the god[s(?)' (KTU 2.31:46; DULAT 272), Akk. dimtu 'tower; fortified area; district' (CAD D 144–147). Rival: a personal name on the same noun, as Ugarit dmty, dmtn (GlOS 1, 147) and Ebla ti-ma-ti 'pillar' (Pagan 1998, row 4489). One attestation.

## Same root

- [I-DA-MA-TE](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/I-DA-MA-TE/index.md>) (ʾidmat)

## References

- Reading: di Mino; GlOS 1; Pagan 1998
- KTU: Dietrich, Manfried; Loretz, Oswald; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2013), Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani und anderen Orten / The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places (KTU³). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 360/1); ISBN 978-3-86835-014-2
- DMic I: Aura Jorro, Francisco, Diccionario Micénico, vol. I (CSIC 1985). 
- CAD D: Oriental Institute (A. Leo Oppenheim, ed.) (1959), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, vol. D. 
- Pagan, Joseph M. (1998), Ebla Electronic Corpus: Onomastic Data Base. Undena Publications (1998 disk); HTML edition by G. Buccellati, IIMAS / Cybernetica Mesopotamica (2012)
- DULAT: del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Brill, Leiden/Boston (Handbook of Oriental Studies 1/112); Third Revised Edition, tr. and ed. Wilfred G.E. Watson; 2 parts
- GlOS 1: Sanmartín, Joaquín (2019), A Glossary of Old Syrian, Volume 1: ʔ – ḳ. Languages of the Ancient Near East 8/1,Eisenbrauns (Pennsylvania State University Press), University Park

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DA-MA-TE/
Licence: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Cite as: di Mino, Tom. 2026. Linear A Lexicon. Plasma AI. https://linear-a.ai/. Data: kaphtor, commit add28e94.