ISic020940: Fragmentary painted inscription on a cup from Temple R
No image available
- ID
- ISic020940
- Status
- edited
- Language
- Ancient Greek
- Object type
- cup
- Text type
- votive inscription
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text: Bertaiola et al. 2023, pp. 383-388.;
- The fourth letter is read tentatively as nu by the editors.
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Two joining fragments preserving slightly less than one quarter of a small, probably locally produced, low hemispherical footless cup. The bowl is slightly deformed; it has an undifferentiated rounded rim, an externally concave base and a thin internal rib on the floor.
- Object type
- cup
- Object condition
- fragments, contiguous
- Dimensions
- height: 2.4 cm, width: 6.2 cm, depth: cm, dim:
Material
- Description
- ceramic
Inscription
- Layout
- The inscription was painted before firing in a single line inside the bowl, approximately 1 cm below the rim, with a slight inclination following the curvature of the vessel. It was probably written from left to right. The inscription and decoration were painted with the same ochre pigment containing hematite.
- Text condition
- incomplete #text_condition, legible
- Technique
- painted
- Pigment
- No data
- Lettering
The letters were painted with a fine brush, with a maximum stroke width of approximately 2-3 mm. Tau has an oblique upper stroke; alpha has a crossbar descending to the left and a short tail beyond the right stroke; iota is slightly curved to the left.
- Letter heights
- Line 1: 20-22mm
- Interlinear heights
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Selinus
- Provenance found
- Found during the 2023 excavation campaign in Temple R, SAS T, US 25, in a layer of calcarenite chips, silt and sand beneath the original floor of the temple.
Current location
- Place
- Selinunte, Sicilia
- Repository
- Baglio Florio Selinunte
- Autopsy
- Autopsied by Valentina Mignosa.
- Map
Date
628-570 BCE or post 570 BCE (628 BCE - 570 BCE)- Evidence
- archaeological-context, lettering
Text type
commentary
Only three letters are fully preserved; the traces after iota are most plausibly read as nu. The size of the writing field and of the letters suggests that the complete text comprised no more than approximately six or seven letters. The text is too fragmentary for a secure restoration and may preserve either an anthroponym or the name or epithet of a divinity. Mignosa in the ed. pr. consider ταῖν [θεαῖν], a dual dative formula referring to Demeter and Kore, the most plausible restoration. If a uniform letter module is assumed, this restoration would exceed the estimated available space by two letters. This is not necessarily decisive, however, since individual letters may vary in size even within the same inscription, as frequently occurs. The alternatives Ταιν[αρίᾳ], an epithet of Artemis, and Ταιν[άριος], an epithet of Poseidon, are regarded as less likely in the Selinuntine context. The archaeological setting, careful pre-firing execution and probable brevity of the text support its interpretation as a votive dedication, but the inscription does not securely identify the deity or deities worshipped in Temple R.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: -
- EDR: -
- EDH: -
- EDCS: -
- PHI: -
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Valentina Mignosa
- Contributors
- Last revision
- 8/4/2026