II.1.1 41. Incertum (ownership or dedication?), 575-550 B.C.E.
Monument
Type
Rim fragment.
Material
Clay.
Dimensions (cm)
H., W., Th., Diam..
Additional description
Rim fragment of skyphos, Corinth, 575-550 B.C.E.
Find place
Berezan.
Find context
Northwestern sector, Area Б, grid square 46 (33), southern half, depression in the ground.
Find circumstances
Found in 1978, excavations of L.V. Kopeykina.
Modern location
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Institution and inventory
The State Hermitage Museum, Б.78.259.
Autopsy
August 2016.
Epigraphic field
Position
Lip, exterior. Originally inscribed on complete vessel.
Lettering
Graffito.
Letterheights (cm)
0.4-0.7
Text
Category
Incertum (ownership or dedication?)
Date
575-550 B.C.E.
Dating criteria
Ceramic date.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>ΔΙΟΣ Τ<unclear reason="damage">Ο</unclear><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
</ab>
</div>
Apparatus criticus
Translation
Commentary
The last letter at the right break is unclear: there is a rounded stroke, but also a slip of the writing implement under it, which might indicate an omega, but omicron is equally possible. If that last letter was an omega, we might have a dedication where [- -]ΔΙΟΣ is part of a personal name, e.g.῾Αρμόδιος or a fully preserved name Δῖος followed by the article in the dative introducing a deity's name. There is a slight chance, however, that ΤΟ̣[- -] might be part of another word, e.g. τόδε, followed e.g. by ἔγραφε. Two Archaic drinking cups from Borysthenes, inscribed one with a sympotic graffito, and another with a dedicatory, were each signed by the writer: ἔγραφε δέ με. In those cases, both cups were also speaking objects, but in our case, it may have been a third-person statement, e.g [- -῾Αρμό]διος τό[δ' ἔγραφε.] In that case, we would envision a longer sympotic graffito, of which our surviving text was but a small part. At the same time, a simpler restoration would be to take ΔΙΟΣ as the name of Zeus, Διὸς, followed by the definite article in the Genitive - το͂, introducing Zeus' cultic epiclesis. That would make our inscription dedicatory. It is not possible to decide between these options, hence Incertum.