ISic003710: Epitaph of Neon son of Donax

No image available

ID
ISic003710
Language
Ancient Greek
Text type
funerary
Object type
stele
Status
draft
Links
View in current site

Edition

Fabio Copani, «Un esercizio di scrittura su una stele da Contrada Piombo (Camarina)», in Dinamiche culturali ed etniche nella Sicilia orientale dall’età classica all’epoca ellenistica, a c. di Teresa Alfieri Tonini e Stefano Struffolino, Aristonothos, Quaderni 4 (Trento: Tangram Edizioni Scientifiche, 2014), 197–201 Zotero
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Apparatus criticus

  • Text after Copani 2014 with slight changes based on photograph

Physical description

Support

Description
Stele in the local limestone, damaged below.
Object type
stele
Material
limestone
Object condition
damaged
Dimensions
height: 50 cmwidth: 30 cmdepth: 18 cm

Inscription

Layout
The first two lines are centred and regular, but increasingly irregular thereafter.
Text condition
partly_illegible
Technique
chiselled
Pigment
No data
Lettering

The first two lines show neat broad regular letters of late classical/early hellenistic date: N with raised right hasta; E with shorter middle bar; omega large and open with short horizontal tails; sigma with open top and bottom strokes, alpha broad with straight bar. After line 2 the letters become more irregular

Letter heights
Line 1-2: 25-30mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Kamarina
Provenance found
Contrada Piombo, localita Bellaccio, rescue excavation by G. Di Stefano (undated), area of a small necropolis
Map

Current location

Place
Santa Croce Camerina, Italy
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale di Kamarina
Autopsy
in stores
Map

Date

4th century BCE (400 BC - 301 BC)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

The first two lines have the clear and standard form of a simple funerary stele. The complication arises with the increasingly illegible, irregular and seemingly incoherent letters which follow from line 3, and which seem in part at least to repeat the material of lines 1-2. Copani proposes that it should perhaps be understood as some sort of 'writing exercise' by a second, less-skilled lapicide, although this seems peculiar on a funerary stele.

Bibliography

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

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
12/18/2025