II.1.1 86. Oval-shaped ostracon with graffito, Classical period.
Monument
Type
Fragment of oval-shaped ostracon.
Material
Clay.
Dimensions (cm)
H., W., Th., Diam..
Additional description
Shaped ostracon made from the wall of Attic BG open vessel, Classical period. The glaze is rubbed off along the perimeter.
Find place
Berezan.
Find context
Western sector, grid square 80-81б, depth down to 0.6-0.9, fill of ditch.
Find circumstances
Found in 1977, excavations of L.V. Kopeykina.
Modern location
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Institution and inventory
The State Hermitage Museum, Б.77.151.
Autopsy
August 2016.
Epigraphic field
Position
Wall, interior. Originally inscribed on ostracon.
Lettering
Graffito.
Letterheights (cm)
Unknown.
Text
Category
Oval-shaped ostracon with graffito.
Date
Classical period.
Dating criteria
Ceramic date.
Apparatus criticus
Translation
Commentary
Graffiti run along the perimeter and are placed in the central portion of this ostracon. Of letters on the perimeter, three can be quite confidently read as iota, kappa, alpha. To the left iota, there is a circular letter with one straight side, but this form of omicron is attested locally. the left of the omicron, the sherd is very worn, but two verticals and a horizontal can be discerned. It is possible that they form a pi, or a gamma and iota. Finally, an eta is also possible. ]ΠΟΙΚΑ[ . ]ΓΟΙΚΑ[ . ]ΗΟΙΚΑ[ . There are many possibilities for restoring the text. The difficulty of choosing a likely restoration is inhibited by the fact that we do not understand the function of these shaped ostraca. In the central portion of the ostracon, a circle is likely an omicron, two parallel horizontals (one of which touches the circle) are apparently intersected by a vertical suggesting a dzeta or ksi, although an eta with extended horizontal is also possible. Another preserved letter has two strokes meeting at a straight angle, which might be a pi, but a shrot stroke at a possible end of the strokes could also suggest an omega with square loop, the shape locally attested in the classical period. There is also a faint trace of a stroke parallel to the short leg of the hypothetical omega, but it appears on the filed away perimeter and may belong with the sequence of letters inscribed along the circumference of the sherd.