ISic003364: Monumental Sikel inscription from city gateway

Apparatus criticus

• Text after Prosdocimi 1995;
• 1: Prosdocimi, Agostiniani 1976-1977: iamakaramehpiiaskaagiiesgeped; Parlangeli 1964-1965: iam akaram eh p[.]as k aag...s g.p.d; Pelagatti 1964-1965: iamakarame[..]paskaa[.]..sg[.]h.d
  
• 2: Prosdocimi, Agostiniani 1976-1977: toutoveregaiesoekadoara iead; Parlangeli 1964-1965: touto veregaies heka. [.]a.d; Pelagatti 1964-1965: toutoveregaieshekaloa..

Physical description

Support

Description

No data

Object type

block

Material

limestone

Condition

complete, broken

Dimensions

height: 40 cm, width: 60 cm, depth: 200 cm

Inscription

Layout

The text is on two lines and is arranged from right to left.

Text condition

complete

Lettering

Types list:

• Α type1
• Α type1.4
• Γ type3
• Δ type1
• Δ type1.2
• Ε type2.2
• Ε type2.3
• Ε type2.3.1
• ϝ type1
• Ι type1
• Κ type1
• Κ type1.1
• Κ type2
• Κ type2.1
• Λ type2
• Μ type2
• Μ type2.1
• Ο type5
• Π type1
• Π type1.1
• Π type2
• Π type2.1
• Ρ type1
• Ρ type1.5
• Ρ type2
• Ρ type2.5
• Τ type2
• Τ type2.1
• Υ type1

Letter heights

Line 1-2: 40-80mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin

Mendolito

Provenance found

Found in excavation by Pelagatti 1962 in east wall of the city gate, inside the fortifications. Moved to the Siracusa museum in 1977 and currently on display in the Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, Sector C: Mendolito

Current location

Place

Siracusa, Italy

Repository

Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi , 96962

Autopsy

None

Map

Date

Evidence

lettering, archaeological-context

Text type

unknown

commentary

The inscription, unearthed by Luigi Bernabò Brea during the excavations of 1962, is on a sandstone block found in the right pier (to the east) of the entrance gate to the settlement. The block was removed in December 1976 from the wall of the city gate and is now in the Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi. Displayed on a city gate at the height of a passerby and placed on a support (the sandstone) that highlighted its presence compared to the lava stones that make up the gate, this document can certainly be interpreted as a ‘public’ inscription. It is indeed the only public inscription so far known in Sicily among the documents in ‘Sikel’ language. The inscription is right-to-left writing and 52-letter long. The script is consistent with what Luciano Agostiniani called the ‘Mendolito alphabet’, featuring the quadrangular shape of the omicron and the inversion of lambda and ypsilon compared to the Chalcidian alphabet. Peculiar letter in the text is the arrow shaped alpha, a recurrent trait in most Sikel inscriptions. Prosdocimi suggested the reading of the text (1995, 1421-1422) which is accepted by most scholars, although a recent revision of the document based on the 3D representation of the block by Tanasi at alii has provided a clearer reading but not many new interpretative cues). The meaning of the text is obscure, but some of the terms seem to have parallels in Italic languages, in particular: iam = hic; akaram = arcem; epopaska = personal name or name of position/status; agiies = together with epopaska it could be the subject of the sentence, that is the second part of an onomastic formula or the second name (the sequence can be segmented: epopas kaagiies, epopa skaagiies epopaska agiies); geped = cepit / habuit; touto = civitas; verega = iuventus, part of the armed community.

Although the difficulties of reading and interpretation prevent us from reaching firm conclusions or giving a proper translation, we could at least assume that the text states that a certain personage or a certain political authority took charge of the construction of the gate or the fortifications for the citizenship. The inscription is particularly fascinating for several reasons: the language, for its proximity to Italic; the alphabet, for the use of the arrow shaped alpha; the exhibition site, that is the city gate; the very content of the inscription, which indicates that we are dealing with a public inscription with representative value; the material, which differs from that commonly used in the area for its abundance, lava stone.

The document in its materiality is one of the most remarkable data because it refers to a usage - that of placing the inscriptions on fortification walls or gates - which cannot be traced back to Greek or Sikel origins and which can instead be found in the Italic area. This, together with archaeological evidence, could be an indication that the Mendolito community came from or had ongoing relations with centres on the other side of the Strait.

Bibliography

Digital editions

• TM: 644869
• EDR: -
• EDH: -
• EDCS: -
• PHI: -

Printed editions

• O. Parlangèli, «Il sostrato linguistico in Sicilia», Kokalos 10–11 (1965 1964): 211–58, at 222-226
• Paola Pelagatti, «L’attività della Soprintendenza della Sicilia Orientale», Kokalos 10–11 (1965 1964): 245‑252, at 245-252
• Paola Pelagatti, «Adrano (Catania). Scavi in contrada Mendolito. Notiziario. Attività delle Soprintendenze (1960-65)», BA LI (1966): 89–90.
• U. Schmoll, ‘Neues zu den protosizilischen Inschriften’, Glotta 46 (1968): 194–206, at 201-204
• Luciano Agostiniani e A. L. Prosdocimi, «Lingue e dialetti della Sicilia antica», Kokalos 22–23, fasc. 1 (1977 1976): 215–60, at 240-241
• R. Ambrosini, «Le iscrizioni sicane, sicule, elime», in Colloquio “Le iscrizioni prelatine in Italia” (Roma, 14- 15 marzo 1977) (Rome, 1979), 57–104.
• A. Morandi, Epigrafia Italica (Rome: «L’Erma» di Bretschneider, 1982), at 165-167
• R.M. Albanese Procelli, «Mendolito», in Bibliografia topografica della colonizzazione greca in Italia e nelle isole tirreniche, a c. di G. Nenci e G. Vallet, vol. 9 (Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore, 1991), 545–61, at 546 no.4
• Luciano Agostiniani, « Les parlers indigenes de la Sicile pregrecque », Lalies 11 (1992): 126‑57.
• Luciano Agostiniani, «L’iscrizione della porta urbica del Mendolito», in La città italica. Atti del II Convegno Internazionale sugli Antichi Umbri, Gubbio, 25-27 settembre 2003, a c. di A. Ancillotti e A. Calderini (Perugia: Jama, 2009), 35–52.

Discussion

• Vittore Pisani, Le lingue dell’Italia antica oltre il latino, 1st ed. (Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier, 1953), at 293
• S. Alessio, «Intervento», Kokalos 10–11 (1965 1964): 253–54, at 253-254
• M. Durante, «Intervento», Kokalos 10–11 (1965 1964): 439–43, at 439-443
• E. Lepore, «Intervento», in Kokalos, vol. 10–11, 1964, 256–57, at 256-257
• Paola Pelagatti, «Luigi Bernabò Brea e la Soprintendenza alle Antichità di Siracusa», in Dalle Arene Candide a Lipari. Scritti in onore di Luigi a Lipari Benabò Brea. Atti del convegno internazionale di Genova (Genova, 3 - 5 febbraio 2001) (Rome, 2004), 3–36.
• Paola Pelagatti, «Luigi Bernabò Brea, il Museo di Adrano e gli inizi degli scavi al Mendolito», in Tra Etna e Simeto. La ricerca archeologica ad Adrano e nel suo territorio (Catania: Biblioteca della Provincia Regionale di Catania, 2009), 16–26, at 21, pls. 5-6-7
• Federica Cordano, «Iscrizioni monumentali dei Siculi», Aristonothos 4 (2012): 165–84, at 168-170
• Valentina Mignosa, ‘Dall’alfabetizzazione Alla Permeabilità Selettiva. Per Una Proposta Di Lettura Della Documentazione Epigrafica Del Mendolito’, Incontri Di Filologia Classica 17 (2018 2017): 215–42, at 218, no. 4, pl. 7
• Massimo Cultraro, «L’epigrafia anellenica della Sicilia orientale nel contesto storico e archeologico: limiti e prospettive», in Dal segno alla parola: lingue e decifrazioni dalle antiche scritture ad oggi, a c. di Enrico Gargano (Monte Compatri: Edizioni Espera, 2024), 229–44, at 233-236 no.2.1

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Valentina Mignosa

Contributors

• Jonathan Prag
• James Cummings
• James Chartrand
• Valeria Vitale
• Michael Metcalfe
• Simona Stoyanova
• Valentina Mignosa
• system

Last revision

4/24/2025