ISic001869: Funerary inscription for Artemo

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo J. Prag 2026-09-17
I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo J. Prag 2026-09-17
ID
ISic001869
Status
edited
Language
Ancient Greek
Object type
block
Text type
funerary

Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text after Orsi 1899 (note that Pace simply follows Orsi 1899;
  • 1: Orsi 1896: ΑΡΤΕΜΟΝ; the inventory shows the foot of a vertical for the final letter, Orsi 1899 prints a small or damaged I (unclear)
  • 2: The inventory shows the left half of the initial alpha to be missing
  • 3: Orsi 1896: ΤΟΥ; Orsi 1899: ΓΟΥ; inventory: [Δ]ΟΥ

Physical description

Support

Description
Described as a rough block of "calcare" in the museum inventory, as 'un blocco sformato di arenaria' in Orsi 1899, and so presumably a coarse local limestone. The inventory notes that it was sawn down for transportation, and was thicker before it was transported to the museum (it is unclear therefore whether the measurement of thickness/depth reported in Orsi's publication is pre- or post-transportation). The inventory does not record the thickness. It appears from the sketch in the inventory that the stone was damaged on the left side, and upper right corner.
Object type
block
Object condition
No data
Dimensions
height: 36 cm, width: 69 cm, depth: 33 cm

Material

Description
limestone
Type > subtype
inorganic.stone > unverified

Inscription

Layout
Three lines of Greek letters, seemingly not centered / regularly laid out.
Text condition
No data
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

Described by Orsi (1896) as 'scritto a pessimi caratteri', and (1899) as 'lettere cattive, rustiche cosi che a tutta prima sembrano archaiche, e molto sconservate... L'iscrizione negligentemente redatta e scolpita è funebre di tarda età'. Pace states 'lettere del III sec. av. Cr.', but given the presence of lunate epsilon and Orsi's comments, a later date seems much more likely.

Letter heights
Line 1-3: 55-95mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Kamarina
Provenance found
A chance find during the excavations of 1896 by a farmer, found in the water at the mouth of the Hipparis (Forgia).. The stone is currently in storage in the archaeological park of Neapolis
Map

Current location

Place
Siracusa, Sicilia
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi
16474
Autopsy
None.
Map

Date

Suggested to be of later Roman date by Orsi on the basis of lettering, but the only possible indicator is the lunate epsilon, which offers little help; the text could on the basis of names, formulae, and lettering date anywhere between late Hellenistic and later Roman. (CE 101 - CE 400)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

The stone does not seem to have been seen or restudied since Orsi's 1899 publication. The presence of omicron and iota adscript at the end of the name, taken to be a vocative by Orsi, would either seem to be archaic, or later Roman orthographic variation, and given the presence of lunate epsilon and other comments of Orsi, the latter seems preferable. Cordano includes the name in her onomastic list in Cordano, Federica. 1984. «Camarina VII: alcuni documenti iscritti importanti per la storia della città». Bolletino d’Arte Anno 69, 26: 31–56, at no. 83, derived from Pace. Proper autopsy still required.

Bibliography

Digital editions
  • TM: -
  • EDR: -
  • EDH: -
  • EDCS: -
  • PHI: -
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
9/25/2026
License
Commons CC-BY 4.0