ISic003147: Byzantine Christian invocation

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; Bonacasa 1955: fig.2
I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; Bonacasa 1955: fig.2
ID
ISic003147
Language
Ancient Greek
Text type
invocation
Object type
rock face
Status
draft
Links
View in current site

Edition

N. Bonacasa, «Documenti cristiani sul Monte Pelligrino», Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 31 (1955): 269–73 Zotero
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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from Bonacasa 1955

Physical description

Support

Description
Text incised on the face of a spur of rock on the side of a narrow valley, at c.1.75m above ground level.
Object type
rock face
Material
stone
Object condition
complete
Dimensions
height: cmwidth: cmdepth: cm

Inscription

Layout
Text over three lines, with a centred justification, decreasing in height from line 1.
Text condition
complete
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

cursive and majiscule alpha, uncial omega, lunate epsilon, use of later Greek ου ligature, use of X for ξ and S for Σ

Letter heights
Line 1-3: 60-80mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Panhormus
Provenance found
Observed and reported several times in the C20, first in 1917, republished by Bonacasa in 1955; on a rocky spur projecting into the Valle del Porco a short distance up the valley from its entrance (?a few minutes walk, a few hundred metres?), on the west side of M. Pellegrino,
Map

Current location

Place
Palermo, Sicilia
Repository
in situ
Autopsy
None

Date

Bonacasa dates to first decades of 7th cent CE (AD 601 - AD 650)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

invocation

commentary

Note the uneven choice of letter forms, and the switch to Latin characters on two occasions. Earlier editors assumed the text was neo-punic or proto-Sicilian.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
2/2/2026