# DU-DA-MA (Dūdāma)

> Beloved (personal name, √d-w-d + -ma); rival the Aegean name of the Keftiu board and Linear B di-du-me

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

- Reading: Dūdāma
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*dawid-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/19/index.md>) 'father's brother, uncle; foster-father; honourable title; beloved'
- Kind: Personal name
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: DU (du) · DA (da) · MA (ma)

## Compared forms

- Hebrew: *dûdāʾîm* — dûdāʾîm 'mandrakes, love-apples' (Gen 30:14; Song 7:14), the u-ā form of √d-w-d
- Amorite: DAWD-U*MA, DA-DU-MA (Gelb 1980, no. 1433); DAWD-A (no. 1413)
- Egyptian: {d-j}-d-ȝ-d-ȝ-m{a}, an 'Aegean' beneficiary of a wine account, BM EA 5647 v. I 3a (Dautais & Gabolde 2025, 14–15)
- Linear B: di-du-me (KN L 588), di-du-mo (KN X 5751, MY Oe 129) (Dautais & Gabolde 2025, Table 1)

## Attestations

- [HT 6b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT6b/index.md>): DU-DA-MA 66

## Commentary

HT 6b .4 DU-DA-MA 66, the largest entry in a list of names, on a face written over an erasure; DU-DA-MA itself shows no undertext (GORILA I 13). dū-dā-ma, the vowels of Heb. dûdāʾîm 'love-apples', √d-w-d 'beloved', + -ma as in the Amorite name DA-DU-MA, Dawdu-ma (Gelb 1980, no. 1433). The same name has the consonants d-d-m in three scripts: Egyptian d-ȝ-d-ȝ-m of the Keftiu writing board and Linear B di-du-me, di-du-mo (Dautais & Gabolde 2025, 14–15). One attestation. See TA-DI.

## Same root

- [DA-DU-\*301](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DA-DU-*301/index.md>) (dādu-nā-…)
- [DA-DU-MI-NE](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DA-DU-MI-NE/index.md>) (dādu-Mīnō)
- [DE-DI](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DE-DI/index.md>) (Dedī)
- [I-DA-DA](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/I-DA-DA/index.md>) (dādā)
- [RU-JA-TA-DI](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/RU-JA-TA-DI/index.md>) (Ruya-dādī)
- [TA-DI](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/TA-DI/index.md>) (dādī)

## In the onomasticon

- [DU-DA-MA](<https://linear-a.ai/names/DU-DA-MA/index.md>): Personal name, Semitic

## References

- Reading: di Mino; Dautais & Gabolde 2025, 14–15; Gelb 1980
- EA: Moran, William L. (1992), The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press
- AS 21: Gelb, Ignace J. (1980), Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite. Assyriological Studies 21,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
- Dautais, Louis; Gabolde, Marc (2025), “Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea” from Knossos to Memphis: Hellenized Cretans in Egypt in the Mid-Eighteenth Dynasty (BM EA 5647). Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections,47,7–28
- GORILA I: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1976), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 1: Tablettes éditées avant 1970 (GORILA I). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 1); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DU-DA-MA/
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 50525edd.