ISic004384: Painted funerary naiskos

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana
I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana
ID
ISic004384
Language
Ancient Greek
Status
draft
Text type
funerary
Object type
aedicula

Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Edition of Arena

Physical description

Support

Description
Remains of the principal element of a limestone funerary aedicola, consisting of a rectangular cippus, heavily damaged to the lower right, and with less damage to the top, which would originally have sat on top of a pyramidal base to form a tomb monument of the eptymbion type. The Aedicula block has a painted slab of Syracusan stone inserted in the recessed central panel (25 x 29 cm). A painted inscription is preserved along the upper cornice of the block, in a field of c.40cm width by 4 cm high, partially obscured at the left end.
Object type
aedicula
Object condition
damaged
Dimensions
height: 60 cm, width: 40 cm, depth: 30 cm

Material

Description
limestone
Type > subtype
inorganic.stone > unverified

Inscription

Layout
A single line of painted letters in a dark pigment on a stucco surface, delinated by an incised horizontal line above.
Text condition
deteriorated
Technique
Painted
Pigment
No data
Lettering

Well-formed letters, showing a slight curvature to the straight strokes. Beta formed of two equal sized, closed loops; epsilon has shorter middle bar; kappa has arms that are not full length; omicron is smaller and mid-line; upsilon has curving upper strokes.

Letter heights
Line 1: 27mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation lines 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Messana
Provenance found
Found in excavations of August 1984, designated tomb 4bis, in reuse of a later 'tomba a cassa', nr. 21, in isola 73 (via C. Battisti, Messina)
Map

Current location

Place
Messina, Sicilia
Repository
No data
Autopsy
in store

Date

Arena argues for a date in the final decades of the third, or first decades of the second century BCE, based upon letter forms and general context of Mamertine Messana. An archaeological terminus ante quem will be provided by tomb 21 when published. (225 BC - AD 175)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

Bibliography

Digital editions
  • TM: -
  • EDR: -
  • EDH: -
  • EDCS: -
  • PHI: -
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
2/15/2022