II.1.1 2. Ownership inscription (speaking object), 550-500(?) B.C.E.
Monument
Type
Fragment of lid.
Material
Clay.
Dimensions (cm)
H.8.2 (inv), W.17.7 (inv), Th., Diam..
Additional description
Closed vessel of large size (lekane?), 550-500(?) B.C.E. Restored from five fragments.
Find place
Berezan.
Find context
(Necropolis?) Grave (?)108.
Find circumstances
Found in 1900-1901, excavations of G.L. Skadovsky.
Modern location
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Institution and inventory
The State Hermitage Museum, Б.77.
Autopsy
August 2016.
Epigraphic field
Position
Top of the lid, exterior.
Lettering
Graffito. In a straight line, orthograde. Closer to the top of the lid than to the rim. Quite evenly spaced letters. Four-bar sigma with widely splayed bars. Epsilon with downward slanting horizontals.
Letterheights (cm)
0.3-0.6
Text
Category
Ownership inscription (speaking object).
Date
550-500(?) B.C.E.
Dating criteria
Ceramic date.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/>Σμίκης εἰμί
</ab>
</div>Apparatus criticus
[- -]ι̣ς Μίκης Yaylenko 1980; [- -]ι̣ς Μίκης ou Σμίκης εἰμί Dubois 1996
Translation
Commentary
This graffito belongs to the category of ownership inscriptions that are sometimes identified as 'speaking objects.' Σμικης must therefore be a genitive form, either of the feminine name Σμίκα or of the male name Σμίκηος.
Dubois (IGDOlb no. 32) relied on Yaylenko's drawing (Pl. 11, no. 24), which represented a hint of a vertical before the first sigma at the left break, but my autopsy shows this to be mistaken. S.R. Tokhtasiev (Review of Dubois, L. Inscriptions grecques dialectales d’Olbia du Pont (Geneve, 1996), in Hyperboreus 5/1 (1999):164-192) noted (p. 183) the same, as well as pointing out that the iota to the right of mu appears to have an extra diagonal stroke, which means that the inscriber began, by mistake, cutting a kappa, noticed the mistake and stopped.
Dubois (p. 75, no. 32) explains the name as "un sobriquet féminin de la famille μικρός/μικκός "petit".
Images
© 2024 Irene
Polinskaya