Unclear
IGCyr118100
Trismegistos ID: 738729
Source Description
Support
Fragmentary flat tile of non-local pink-coated, grey inside, micacious clay, broken out on all sides, (0.12; 0.12;0.01).
Layout
Scratched on one face in three lines, line 1 ascending in comparison with ll. 2-3; a small figure of fish is cut between ll. 1 and 2; many other light strokes are visible on the surface.
Letters
0.008-0.015; line 2 and 3 at least are dextroverse; irregular letters, some of which are difficult to interpret; alpha with vertical central bar, delta almost D-shaped, closed eta without central bar, perhaps one unclear koppa; unclear letters at line 1 (see commentary).
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Prior to the settlement of 631 B.C. (context, lettering)
Findspot
Found by M. Luni in 2012 at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : on the native rock beneath the temple of the Dioscuri on the Acropolis ridge (once said 'tempio ipetrale').
Last recorded Location
Studied by C. Dobias-Lalou in october 2012.
Text constituted from
Transcription from object (CDL).
Bibliography
Dobias-Lalou, 2014 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Une inscription archaïque du temple des Dioscures à Cyrène, in M. Luni, Cirene greca e romana, Monografie di archeologia libica, 36, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica, 7, Roma, 31-37 - see in bibliography . Cf. Dobias-Lalou, 2015 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2015, Les débuts de l'écriture en Cyrénaïque, in A. Inglese, Epigrammata 3. Saper scrivere nel Mediterraneo antico. Esiti di scrittura fra VI e IV sec. a.C., in ricordo di Mario Luni. Atti del convegno di Roma, 7-8 Novembre 2014, Tivoli, 59-80, 315-321 - see in bibliography ; Dobias-Lalou, 2013-2014 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2013-2014, Une décennie de travaux épigraphiques en Cyrénaïque: bilan 2005-2014 et projets, Libya Antiqua (LibAnt)n.s. 7, 185-193 - see in bibliography , p. 185.
Apparatus
1
++ : Dobias-Lalou, 2014
Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Une inscription archaïque du temple des Dioscures à Cyrène, in M. Luni, Cirene greca e romana, Monografie di archeologia libica, 36, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica, 7, Roma, 31-37 - see in bibliography
| ΓΧ : Dobias-Lalou, 2014
Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Une inscription archaïque du temple des Dioscures à Cyrène, in M. Luni, Cirene greca e romana, Monografie di archeologia libica, 36, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica, 7, Roma, 31-37 - see in bibliography
| γχ´(?)
2 τ̣ο̃ : Dobias-Lalou, 2014
Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Une inscription archaïque du temple des Dioscures à Cyrène, in M. Luni, Cirene greca e romana, Monografie di archeologia libica, 36, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica, 7, Roma, 31-37 - see in bibliography
ΙΟ || τ̣ο̃ Ἀρχιλόχọ̄ (from Marengo's suggestion) : Dobias-Lalou, 2014
Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Une inscription archaïque du temple des Dioscures à Cyrène, in M. Luni, Cirene greca e romana, Monografie di archeologia libica, 36, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica, 7, Roma, 31-37 - see in bibliography
α
ϙ
also consonant with ρ
+λοχο̣
3 ΗΙ : Dobias-Lalou, 2014
Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Une inscription archaïque du temple des Dioscures à Cyrène, in M. Luni, Cirene greca e romana, Monografie di archeologia libica, 36, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica, 7, Roma, 31-37 - see in bibliography
ηι´(?)
French translation
[------] D'Arkhilokhos le Rhodien: ++.
English translation
[------] Of Archilochos the Rhodian: ++.
Italian translation
[------] Di Archilochos il Rodio: ++.
Commentary
Both the intrinsic features and the archaeological context of this fragmentary tile show that it was brought from abroad and inscribed by a foreigner, either abroad or in Libya. Deciphering and interpreting the graffito remains a challenge.
L. 1: the character at right might be the special Cyrenaican gamma also known from IGCyr000100. If so the script would be sinistroverse. The second character resembles a hour-glass character without its lower part. It might stand for chi (as once in Laconia) or ksi (at Knidos). As no word might be read with such consonants, an alternative would be either number 1003, which would be surprising both for the chronology of alphabetic glyphs as numbers and for the high amount resulting or 63, with again the first mentioned oddity. Eventually, an interpretation with Cypriot syllabograms, also mentioned in editio princeps , to be read ro-ti, i.e. Ῥhοδί- is no more convincing.
L. 2: C. Dobias-Lalou is now convinced by S.M. Marengo's reading of the personal name Archilochos: the 4th character should be a rho rather than a koppa and the multiple strokes that follow it may be read as a chi and an iota obliquely inserted above the main line.
Creative Commons Attributions-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All citation, reuse or distribution of this work must contain a link back to DOI: http://doi.org/10.6092/UNIBO/IGCYRGVCYR and the filename (IGCyr000000 or GVCyr000), as well as the year of consultation.
