ISic001395: I.Sicily inscription 001395

Apparatus criticus

Text is that of Marshall (based upon autopsy); Kaibel reproduced the printed transcription of Ansaldi with several conjectural emendations; Libertini simplified from Kaibel; Manganaro substantially emended Ansaldi's text.;
1: Ansaldi: ΝΕΟΤΕΡΑΣΚΑΤΑΚΑΤΑͷ...ΑΥΧΥΤΑΥ; Kaibel: Α[ρ]χυτα[ς] (?); Libertini: Νεωτέρας κατα...Ἀ(ρ)χύτας; Manganaro: Νεωτέρας κατὰ (τ)άγ(μ)α[τα] Ἀ(ρ)χύτα(ς)
2: Ansaldi: ΝΣΤΙΟΔΟΡΟΥΣΑΝΓΥΑ; Kaibel: Σαντρα (?); Libertini: ...ιοδόρου Σαντρα (?); Manganaro (Ἑ)στιοδ(ω)ρου Σαντ(ρ)α
3: Ansaldi: ΕΠΟΕIΣΕ; Libertini: ἐποίησε; Manganaro: ἐπο(ίη)σε

Physical description

Support

Description: A rectangular slab of white marble, broken away at the top left corner, but otherwise intact.
Object type: plaque
Material: marble (white)
Condition: No data
Dimensions: height: 8.9 cm, width: 34.93 cm, depth: 4.45 cm

Inscription

Layout

No data

Text condition

No data

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1: mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Centuripae
Provenance found: First reported by Ansaldi 1851 as found in 1844 at Centuripe, 'nell'orto laterale all chiesa di Maria delle Grazie', and subsequently in the possession of the provost D. Paolino Riolo (note that this location puts it in the vicinity of the Roman forum). The later BM register (acquisition of 1863) records it as found by George Dennis in excavations at Agrigentum, one of many items acquired by the museum from Dennis at this point, including several other pieces from Agrigentum, but it seems more likely that Dennis acquired it from a dealer in Agrigento, given the clear local evidence of discovery at Centuripe 20 years earlier
Map

Current location

Place: London, United Kingdom
Repository: The British Museum , 1863,0728.190
Autopsy: None

Date

Lettering of this sort can be observed already in the later Hellenistic period in Sicily, but the use of marble may suggest that the piece belongs in the Roman period, although the absence of Roman names in turn might suggest an earlier date. Perhaps second century CE? (AD 101 – AD 200)

Evidence: lettering, material-context

Text type

dedication

commentary

Recorded on the BM website at https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1863-0728-190. There is no published photograph of the inscription, which commentators since Kaibel have assumed to be lost; but it was acquired by the British Museum in 1863, and the published edition in the catalogue of the Greek inscriptions (vol. IV, part 2), undertaken by F.H. Marshall between 1909 and 1916, includes a drawing of the text and greater information on the state of the stone. The first line is very difficult to resolve, with the 13th letter seemingly a B in ligature with a T, which however makes no sense. It seems likely we have a dedication of a temple or shrine and a statue by one Archytas Sangra, son of Hestiodoros; the object of the dedication is presumably described by the initial phrase, which it was suggested by Kaibel as relating to a divinised female member of the imperial house, such as Sabina or Plotina, to whom the epithet neotera was applied; Manganaro suggested instead that this referred to Nephthys, the sister of Isis, speculatively restoring a missing first line above the text, as: [Διὸς Σαράπιδος καὶ Ἴσιδος καὶ]. Without autopsy of the stone, any resolution seems rather speculative.

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor