ISic003362: Inscribed stele in the Sikel language
- ID
- ISic003362
- Language
- Sikel
- Text type
- funerary
- Object type
- stele
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
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Apparatus criticus
- Text after Agostiniani and Cordano 2002 ;
- Ribezzo 1933: nendas purenos tebeg pra arei en bourenai vide pagos-ti kealte inrube ;
- Pisani 1934(a): NENDAS[- c.7 -]TEBEIPRAAREIENBOURENAIVIDEPAGOSTIKEAITE.SI.IUBE ;
- Pisani 1934(b): Nendas [- c.4 -] tebei praareien Bourenai; vide-p agosti, keai te.si. iube ;
- Blumenthal: Nenda S[- c.6 -] tebei pra arei en bouren aivi de pago ;
- Ribezzo 1946-1947: nendas puren[a]s tebeg praarei en bourenai vide pagos-ti kealte inrube ;
- Pisani 1953[1959]: nendas [-c.4-] tebeipraareienbourenaividepagostikeaite[..]ss.iube ;
- Schmoll: νενδασπυρενοστεβεγπρααρειενβουρεναιϝιδεπαγοτι: κεαλτε.ινρυβε ;
- Pisani 1964: nendaspurenostebeipraareienbourenaividepagostikeaite..ss.iube ;
- Manganaro: Nendas Purenos tebeg pra Arei en Bourenai Fide, pagos tike aite inrube ;
- Zamboni: νενδασπυρενοστεβεγπρααρειενβουρεναιϝιδεπαγοτικεαλτε.ινρυβε ;
- Morandi: nendas purenos tebeg praarei en bo.renai vide pagostike aite.n..n.ube
Physical description
Support
- Description
- A slab of limestone, narrower at the base, and rounded at the top; the bottom edge is roughly straight. The surface is roughly smoothed. There is minor damage to the face in the upper left quarter.
- Object type
- stele
- Material
- limestone
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 76 cm, width: 46 cm, depth: 7 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- The text is arranged in a clockwise spiral, beginning at the lower left corner, and running right around the outer margin of the face, before proceeding up the left side for a second time.
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Not measured: mm
- Interlinear heights
- Not measured: mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- No data
- Provenance found
- Found in 1929 in the area of an ancient necropolis in contrada Sciri Sottano, 10km south-west of Licodia Eubea.
- Map
Current location
- Place
- Siracusa, Italy
- Repository
- Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi , 47071
- Autopsy
- Display Sector C, Licodia Eubea
- Map
Date
First half of 5th century BCE (550 BC – 450 BC)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
The text is probably a funerary inscription. The letters do not run left-to-right, but in a spiral, beginning at the bottom left (a feature also found in some early Greek inscriptions). The initial word Nendas is found in other Sikel inscriptions and usually thought to be a personal name. According to ancient authors such as Thucydides, the Sikels were one of three ethnic groups present on the island before the arrival of the Phoenicians and Greeks. A small number of inscriptions from the sixth and fifth centuries BC have been found in the south-east of the island, including this one. These use the Greek alphabet (with the distinctive form of alpha 𐅢 visible here) but appear to be in the Sikel language – in other words, the practice of writing appears to have been adopted from the Greek settlers. The Sikel language is considered to be similar to the Sabellic languages of central Italy.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: 644867
- EDR: -
- EDH: -
- EDCS: -
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
- F. Ribezzo, «L’Iscrizione Sicano-Italica scoperta a Sciri presso Licodìa Eubea (Caltagirone)», Rivista Indo-Greco-Italica di filologia - lingua - antichità 17, fasc. 3–4 (1933): 77-91 = 197-211.
- J. Whatmough, R.S. Conway, and E. Johnson, The Prae-Italic Dialects of Italy, 3 vols (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), at 281-282, n.1
- Vittore Pisani, «Noterelle siculo-ausoniche», Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica 11 (1934): 315–26, at 315-321
- F. Ribezzo, «A proposito dell’iscrizione sicula di Sciri», Rivista Indo-Greco-Italica di filologia - lingua - antichità 18, fasc. 1–2 (1934): 116.
- J. Whatmough, The Foundations of Roman Italy (London, 1937), at 365
- J.B. Hofmann, ‘Altitalische Sprachdenkmäler. Bericht über das Schrifttum der Jahre 1931-1937’, Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der Altertumswissenschaft 270 (1940): 1–122, at 49
- B. Pace, Arte e civiltà della Sicilia antica. Volume quarto. Barbari e Bizantini (Rome, Naples, Città di Castello: Società anonima editrice Dante Alighieri, 1949), at 484, no.2
- Vittore Pisani, Le lingue dell’Italia antica oltre il latino, 1st ed. (Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier, 1953), at 256
- U. Schmoll, Die vorgriechischen Sprachen siziliens (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1958), at 30-31 no.16
- Marcello Durante, «Sulla lingua degli Elimi», Kokalos 7 (1961): 81–90, at 106-108
- Enrico Campanile, «Studi sulla posizione dialettale del latino», Studi e Saggi Linguistici 8 (1968): 16–130, at 91-92
- Luciano Agostiniani e A. L. Prosdocimi, «Lingue e dialetti della Sicilia antica», Kokalos 22–23, fasc. 1 (1977 1976): 215–60, at 229-230, 246-247
- Giacomo Manganaro, «Intervento», Kokalos 22–23, fasc. 1 (1977 1976): 253–57, at 256
- Alberto Zamboni, Il panorama attuale delle ricerche storico-etimologiche nel dominio italiano, Estr. da Annales / Universitatis scientiarum budapestinensis de Rolando Eotvos nominatae. Separatum Sectio linguistica 10 (Budapest, 1978), at 957, 986
- Luciano Agostiniani, «Epigrafia e linguistica anelleniche di Sicilia. Prospettive, problemi, acquisizioni», Kokalos 26–27 (1981 1980): 503–30, at 511-512
- A. Morandi, Epigrafia Italica (Rome: «L’Erma» di Bretschneider, 1982), at 167-168
- Aldo Luigi Prosdocimi, «Sabinità e (pan)italicità linguistica», Dialoghi di Archeologia 5, fasc. 1 (1987): 53–64, at 59
- Luciano Agostiniani, « Les parlers indigenes de la Sicile pregrecque », Lalies 11 (1992): 126‑57, at 131, 148 no.7
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Cummings
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- Serena Agodi
- system
- Simona Stoyanova
- Valentina Mignosa
- Last revision
- 1/19/2021