ISic002134: Funerary marker for Philoxenos

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
ISic002134
Status
draft
Language
Ancient Greek
Object type
column
Text type
funerary

Edition

Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, Istituto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell’arte (Italy), e Reale Accademia d’Italia, «Notizie degli scavi di antichità», Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1876, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1646037 Zotero
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Apparatus criticus

  • Text after Orsi 1912, 1915 and inventory;
  • 1: Orsi 1912: ΧΡΗΤ (sic); corrected in inventory and 1915

Physical description

Support

Description
A small limestone column, with a projecting moulding around the top; broken in two across the upper part of the shaft; text incised on the face of the column drum. The upper fragment with the capital now appears to be lost.
Object type
column
Object condition
complete, broken
Dimensions
height: 69 cm, width: 33 cm, depth: cm

Material

Description
limestone
Type > subtype
stone.limestone > unverified

Inscription

Layout
Text crudely incised in two lines across the face
Text condition
complete
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

The text is crudely incised with a sharp implement, more in the style of a graffito than a formally carved text. The lettering is somewhat irregular in size. The sigma in line 2 is seemingly crudely inserted below the eta, but the form is unclear. Quadrate epsilon, small omicron, episilon with bars of equal length.

Letter heights
Line 1: mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Syracusae medium certainty
Provenance found
Found in the autumn of 1911, 'nel fondo denominato Merica, al bivio delle rotabili Belvedere-Floridia' (assumed to be the junction where the road splits for these two locales, in the area therefore of the Fusco necropolis)
Map

Current location

Place
Siracusa, Sicilia
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi
32643
Autopsy
Observed by Prag in storage in the archaeological park of Neapolis, 2026-09-17, but not yet fully studied.
Map

Date

Hellenistic (300 BCE - CE 1)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

The text was inadvertently published twice by Orsi in the NSA; the sigma is inserted subsequently in the transcription in the inventory, and clearly was omitted in the first transcription and the initial publication.

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