II.1.1 58. Incertum (ownership or divine property), ca. 450-425 B.C.E.
Monument
Type
Base of stemless cup, with fragment of wall and handle.
Material
Clay.
Dimensions (cm)
H., W., Th., Diam..
Additional description
Attic, BG, stemless cup, type: rim offset inside, ca. 450-425 B.C.E. (close to Agora XII, nos. 483-492).
Find place
Berezan.
Find context
Unknown.
Find circumstances
Found in 1900, excavations of G.L. Skadovsky.
Modern location
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Institution and inventory
The State Hermitage Museum, Б.108.
Autopsy
August 2016.
Epigraphic field
Position
Base, underside.
Lettering
Graffito. Written clockwise, in a semicircle close to the centre. Alpha with straight crossbar. Four-bar sigma with splayed bars. The loop of rho touches the vertical at obtuse angle. The use of eta suggests an Ionian speaker.
Letterheights (cm)
0.5-1.0
Text
Category
Dedication (divine property).
Date
Ca. 450-425 B.C.E.
Dating criteria
Ceramic date.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/>Ἀπατόρης
</ab>
</div>Apparatus criticus
Translation
Commentary
There are two views in earlier scholarship about the meaning of this graffito, which is fully preserved - Ἀπατόρης: either it is seen as a variant of the cultic name of Aphrodite Apatouros of Bosporus who was worshipped at a sanctuary near Phanagoreia. Aphrodite is attested in Berezan as Syria. Dubois, however, prefers to see here a personal name (IGDOlbia 7) and LGPN lists it as such (V4-15627). There is another attestation of the name Ἀπατούρη (LGPN V4-15647), at Pantikapaion in the IV cent BCE. The uncertainty of interpretation leads me to identify the graffito as Incertum.
Images
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