II.1.1 56. Incertum (dedication or sympotic?), ca. 470-450 B.C.E.
Monument
Type
Rim fragment.
Material
Clay.
Dimensions (cm)
H., W., Th., Diam..
Additional description
Attica, BG cup, inset lip, ca. 470-450 B.C.E. (close to Agora XII, no. 471).
Find place
Berezan.
Find context
Northwestern sector, Area Б, enclosure 5/V 1.
Find circumstances
Found in 1988, excavations of Ya.V. Domansky.
Modern location
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Institution and inventory
The State Hermitage Museum, Б.88.85.
Autopsy
August 2016.
Epigraphic field
Position
Lip, exterior, along rim. Originally inscribed on complete vessel.
Lettering
Graffito.
Letterheights (cm)
0.2-0.25
Text
Category
Incertum (dedication or sympotic?)
Date
Ca. 470-450 B.C.E.
Dating criteria
Ceramic date.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/>ΟΣΑ̣[- -]
</ab>
</div>
Apparatus criticus
Translation
Commentary
The graffito is written orthograde, and the preserved fragment begins to the right of the broken off handle. Inscription on the lip is likely to be sympotic or dedicatory. One possibility is that the inscription started left of the handle and that on our fragment we have its continuation. To run out of space and having to break and then continue the text after the handle, it would have had to be a longish text, e.g. a full dedicatory formula or a sympotic text. The second sentence could have been a personal name (also still left of the handle) followed by either a patronymic or an ethnic, such as ὁ Σά[μιος] or ὁ Σά[τυρου], concluding, e.g., with ἔγραψεν. Another possibility is that the continuation of the text began with a pronoun ὅς - who/whoever, as a few sympotic inscriptions show, a clause "whoever drinks..." (e.g. on the famous Nestor's cup from Pithecusae), so we could restore e.g. ὂς ἄ[ν - -]. A similar formula might be in use on 2.1.1 32.