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Old Smyrna: Inscriptions on Sherds and Small Objects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

L. H. Jeffery
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Extract

The inscriptions here published, which were found in the Anglo-Turkish excavations at Old Smyrna between 1948 and 1953, are mostly fragments from the short, trivial writings of daily life. There are also one or two dedications, and a few inscriptions painted by potters on their wares. No inscriptions on stone were found, but this is not surprising, for the parts uncovered were chiefly private houses and stretches of the city's great wall. One important temple of a goddess, perhaps Artemis, was located and cleared, but it had unfortunately been much eroded. No other public building was reached, nor an agora: so the present epigraphic harvest should more properly be called gleanings, some of it merely owners' or merchants' marks—single letters or signs—on domestic pottery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 59 , November 1964 , pp. 39 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1964

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References

1 See BSA liii–liv (1958–9), articles by J. M. Cook, R. V. Nicholls, J. K. Anderson, and J. Boardman. I am deeply indebted to Professor Cook for his kindness in putting at my disposal his own notes, giving the provenance on the dig of each sherd, and the expert's description of the pottery. He has also read, and greatly improved, the first draft of this article, and has generously allowed me to include the unpublished figured sherds nos. 1 and 3–5 on pp. 45 f. The photograph of 23 was taken by Mr. B. B. Shefton, the others by Professor Cook.

2 A few brief stamped inscriptions, on amphorae and other objects, will be published separately.

3 See Cook, J. M., BSA liii–liv 12Google Scholar, n. 14, and below, p. 44, 40.

4 For a detailed discussion of this, see J. M. Cook, op. cit. 25 ff.

5 Petersen, and Buck, , A Reverse Index of Greek Proper Names and Adjectives (1944) 296Google Scholar, cite also and They make no comment as to the original meaning of this ending; cf. Boisacq, Dictionnaire étymologique 3 s.v. dim. f.

6 For other examples of graffiti on these amphorae see Jeffery, , BSA 1 (1955) 67 ff.Google Scholar

7 Friedrich, , Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmäler (1932) ix (Lydische Texte) nos. 30, 31, 32, 49.Google Scholar No. 30 is ascribed to the seventh century without comment by Bossert, , Altanatolien (1942) 27Google Scholar, no. 197.

8 See J. M. Cook, op. cit. 31, n. 87.

9 See n. 3 above.

10 The provenances were not recorded, except for 41.

11 See Jeffery, LSAG 328.

12 Jeffery, op. cit. 266 f.

13 Long sigma: cf. Friedrich, op. cit. X (Phrygische Texte), nos. 1–4, 8, 14–15; Bossert, , Altanatolien (1942), no. 1105Google Scholar; Young, R. S., ILN for 3 Jan. 1953, p. 23Google Scholar, fig. 14, and AJA lxii (1958) 153, pl. 25, fig. 21; Edwards, R., AJA lxiii (1959) 265Google Scholar, pl. 65, fig. 10. Long epsilon: Friedrich, op. cit., nos. 1–4, 10; R. S. Young, ILN, loc. cit.

14 The three Minyad sisters Alkathoa, Leukippe, and rsippe stayed at their looms until they were forced by ionysos to join the Maenad revels with the other Boeotian omen, and in the revels Leukippe killed her own son ippasos. See RE s.v. Alkathoa, and Page, Corinna (1954) B. Professor Cook's suggestion (ap. Anderson, loc. cit.) an attractive alternative—to read the word as an tempt at ‘prizes’, one being a female slave as at itroklos' funeral games.

15 On alleged straight iotas in Corinthian vase-inscriptions, see further Jeffery, , BSA xliii (1948) 201 ff.Google Scholar

16 Op. cit. 151: ‘Although Middle Corinthian pieces are fairly numerous in the later levels we have no certain Late Corinthian vases. We have no pieces in the White Style, and only one possible red-ground vase [our 3]. which will be discussed elsewhere.’

17 Some small fragments from the rim of a bronze bowl, carrying traces of an inscription, were found in the area of the temple during the excavations of 1951. I was shown these in summer 1951 when I visited Old Smyrna, but their condition was so fragile that, though a few scattered letters were visible from what was presumably a dedication, it was not possible to make any satisfactory photographs or tracings.

18 BSA liii–liv (1958–9), 29 f. and n. 87.

19 The following are the references in LSAG: Pyrrhos, Eretria 22; Kallikleas, Ionian Islands 2; Aristonothos, Euboic colonies 24; –ς, on a ‘Melian’ amphora, p. 270, n. 3; Nikesermos, Chios 42e.

20 Krater, : To Ergon 1961 (1962) 185 ff.Google Scholar, fig. 210. Fragment showing Ares and Aphrodite, Karusos, , Jdl lxii (1937) 166 ff.Google Scholar, figs. 1–12.

21 SirBeazley, John's Potter and Painter in Ancient Athens (1944) 25 ff.Google Scholar clarifies excellently for us the problem as it concerned Athenian pottery of the late sixth century and the fifth.

22 See Mandarono, G., Arch. Class, xiii (1961) 113 ff.Google Scholar for the latest discussion on this, supporting the arguments for a genitive followed by a stroke for punctuation.

23 I have not included in the category of signatures in scriptions such as that on the fragment of a vase dedicated to Herakles from Eretria (Kourouniotes, AE 1911. 34 f., fig. 25; Jeffery, LSAG 85, 87, no. 10): i.e. where the potter is dedicating one of his own wares, and for that reason writes on the object that he made it.

24 At a later date, as Sir John Beazley points out (op. cit., n. 21 above), it might on some occasions mean only that the pot was the product of a workshop whose master's name was put on it even if it was not made by his own hands.

25 Timonidas: Payne, NC 103 f.: on the plaque, on the bottle, Sophilos: plaques, Karousou, S., AM lxii (1937) 111 ff.Google Scholar, Beazley, J. D., Hesperia xiii (1944) 51Google Scholar, Boardman, J., BSA I (1955) 59.Google Scholar Signature (on pots only): Beazley, ABF, nos. 15, 16, 36, showing both (15, 16) and (36).