II.1.1 308. Commercial notation (trademark?), ca. 500-480 B.C.E.

Monument

Type

Fragment of foot. 

Material

Clay. 

Dimensions (cm)

H.2.5 (inv), W., Th., Diam.8.3 (inv).

Additional description

Attic, stemmed cup, ca. 500-480 B.C.E. (Agora XII, type 965). 

Find place

Berezan. 

Find context

Sector AI. 

Find circumstances

Found in 1904, excavations of E.R. von Shtern. 

Modern location

Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation. 

Institution and inventory

The State Hermitage Museum, Б.242. 

Autopsy

August 2016. 

Epigraphic field

Position

Foot, underside, slope. 

Lettering

Graffito. On the grooved sloping surface of the interior of the ring base. Scratched across the grooves. 

Letterheights (cm)

0.9

Text

Category

Unclassified mark (trademark?) 

Date

Ca. 500-480 B.C.E. 

Dating criteria

Ceramic date. 

Edition

Diplomatic

EpiDoc (XML)

<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
   <ab>
      <lb n="1"/>
   </ab>
   </div>
 
Apparatus criticus

Translation

 

Commentary

(Inv card) Krasotkina, Bilimovich under the direction of I.I. Tolstoy, February 1948: either a sima or mu. To my eye, it looks more like a tradermark -- check JOHNSTON.The parallel verticals in early 5th century (to go by the date of the pot), exclude sigma - we would expect splayed bars. For a mu, the tops of diagonals are significantly (and I think deliberately) below the tops of the verticals. Also, I think there is a deliberate horizontal stroke just above the meeting of diagonals. This suggests a design of a distinctive mark rather than a letter.

 

Images

 

(cc)© 2024 Irene Polinskaya