II.1.1 32. Incertum (ownership or sympotic?) inscription, 1st half VI century B.C.E.

Monument

Type

Rim fragment. 

Material

Clay. 

Dimensions (cm)

H., W., Th., Diam..

Additional description

North Ionia, kylix cup, 1st half VI century B.C.E. 

Find place

Berezan. 

Find context

Northwestern sector, Area Б, enclosure 3/III. 

Find circumstances

Found in 1991, excavations of Ya.V. Domansky. 

Modern location

Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation. 

Institution and inventory

The State Hermitage Museum, Б.91.162. 

Autopsy

August 2016. 

Epigraphic field

Position

Lip, exterior. Originally inscribed on complete vessel. 

Lettering

Graffito. 

Letterheights (cm)

0.6-0.9

Text

Category

Incertum (ownership or sympotic?) inscription 

Date

1st half VI century B.C.E. 

Dating criteria

Ceramic date. 

Edition

[---]Ν̣Ο:ΟΣΑΝ̣[---]

Diplomatic

[---].Ο:ΟΣΑ.[---]

EpiDoc (XML)

<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
   <ab>
      <lb n="1"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/><unclear reason="damage">Ν</unclear>Ο:ΟΣΑ<unclear reason="damage">Ν</unclear><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
   </ab>
   </div>
 
Apparatus criticus

Translation

 

Commentary

[- -]Ν̣Ο must be the ending, in the Genitive, of a personal name, of which there are too many possibilities, e.g. compound names with the second part -ξενος. The phrase that begins after the dipunct could be read as ὂς ἄν[ - -], signalling the start of a relative clause, for example, similar to the famous Nestor's cup - ℎὸς δ’ ἂ‵ν′ το͂δε πίεσι - "whoever drinks"...(IGASMG III 2; SEG 14:604, 18:481(1), 18:481(2), 19:621(1), 19:621(2), 26:1144(1), 26:11(2), 27:679 37:789, 41:866, 42:919, 45:1454, 46:1327, 47:1488,1, 53:1084). The verb could be different, but it is the formula that is typical for sympotic inscriptions on drinking cups and other sympotic pottery, including the Dipylon oenochoe graffito - ℎὸς νῦν ὀρχεστο͂ν πάντον ἀταλότατα παίζει|το͂ τόδε κλΙμιν(?) vacat (IG I2 919). Overall, I am inlined to see the possible structure of the text as [I am the cup of e.g. Polyxe]nos. Whoever [drinks from me... ]. On this view, this fragmentary graffito would be sympotic.

 

Images

 

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