Support
Rectangular altar cut in the rock, surrounded by a regular margin and originally separated in two unequal parts; a deep transversal trench cutting the rectangle in the middle of the width might be a pit for libations (whole altar 0.96; 0.46; -; inscribed margin 0.96; 0.06; -).
Layout
Inscribed on the upper border; many later Greek and Arabic letters were scratched everywhere.
Letters
0.04; epsilon with oblique bars, rho with large loop not quite circular.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Fifth century B.C. (lettering)
Findspot
Found before 1923 in the Port of Cyrene, later Apollonia pleiades; HGL : at top of Kallikrateia Rock .
Last recorded Location
Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1982 and many other times in situ.
Text constituted from
Transcription from stone (CDL).
Ferri, 1923 Ferri, S., 1923, Contributi di Cirene alla storia della religione greca, Roma - see in bibliography , p. 8, n. 7e, fig. 8, and Oliverio, 1932-1933 Oliverio, G., 1932-1933, Documenti antichi dell'Africa Italiana, I, fasc. 1-2, Bergamo - see in bibliography , pp. 166-167, n. 48, tab. XXVII, figs. 52-53, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 9.350; Reynolds, 1976 Reynolds, J.M., 1976, The Inscriptions of Apollonia, in R.G. Goodchild, J. Griffiths Pedley, D. White, J.H. Humphrey (eds.), Apollonia, the port of Cyrene: excavations by the University of Michigan, 1965-1967, Libya Antiqua (LibAnt)Suppl. 4, Tripoli, 293-333 - see in bibliography , n. 1, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 27.1125bis. Cf. Chamoux, 1998 Chamoux, F., 1998, Callicrateia, divinité protectrice du port de Cyrène, in E. Catani, S.M. Marengo (eds.), La Cirenaica in età antica: Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Macerata, 18-20 Maggio 1995, Ichnia1, Pisa-Roma, 137-143 - see in bibliography , and Callot, 1999 Callot, J.-J., 1999, Recherches sur les cultes en Cyrénaïque durant le Haut-Empire romain, Études d'archéologie classique10, Nancy-Paris - see in bibliography , pp. 85-86, n. 41, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 48.2047; Dobias-Lalou, 2000 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2000, Le dialecte des inscriptions grecques de Cyrène, Karthago25, Paris - see in bibliography , p. 227.
1 (no gap mentioned by others at the beginning)
[c. 4 - 5] de Kallikrateia.
[c. 4 - 5] of Kallikrateia.
[c. 4 - 5] di Kallikrateia.
The preserved name does not begin at the left end of the space available, where rests of illegible letters seem to exist under later graffiti; however there is not enough space for a word like ἐσχάρα. Might it be some form of ἱαρός?
The date of the inscription, erroneously given as first century B.C. in SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 9.350, was said «buona epoca» by Oliverio, 1932-1933 Oliverio, G., 1932-1933, Documenti antichi dell'Africa Italiana, I, fasc. 1-2, Bergamo - see in bibliography , pp. 166-167, n. 48 and «probably early third century B.C.» by Reynolds, 1976 Reynolds, J.M., 1976, The Inscriptions of Apollonia, in R.G. Goodchild, J. Griffiths Pedley, D. White, J.H. Humphrey (eds.), Apollonia, the port of Cyrene: excavations by the University of Michigan, 1965-1967, Libya Antiqua (LibAnt)Suppl. 4, Tripoli, 293-333 - see in bibliography , n. 1. But both epsilon and rho at least belong to an older period, even older than the end of the fourth century (so Callot, 1999 Callot, J.-J., 1999, Recherches sur les cultes en Cyrénaïque durant le Haut-Empire romain, Études d'archéologie classique10, Nancy-Paris - see in bibliography , pp. 85-86, n. 41 and Dobias-Lalou, 2000 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2000, Le dialecte des inscriptions grecques de Cyrène, Karthago25, Paris - see in bibliography , p. 227).
Chamoux, 1998 Chamoux, F., 1998, Callicrateia, divinité protectrice du port de Cyrène, in E. Catani, S.M. Marengo (eds.), La Cirenaica in età antica: Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Macerata, 18-20 Maggio 1995, Ichnia1, Pisa-Roma, 137-143 - see in bibliography suggested that the name was an epithet or a cult-name of Artemis, as a protector of the port. For other deities honoured on the spot, see Dobias-Lalou, 2012 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2012, Prendre la mer et se confier aux dieux: une nouvelle épigramme grecque du port de Cyrène, in J.Chr. Couvenhes et alii (éd.); L'hellénisme, d'une rive à l'autre de la Méditerranée. Mélanges offerts à André Laronde, Paris, 225-238 - see in bibliography , pp. 230-231 and GVCyr052.
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