DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2532#0293
222
INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE ARGIVE HERAEUM
read 'Ettlvlko<; dp-^iTeKroiv, but it is quite as likely that eVt is a preposition followed by
a genitive, as in so many of the Corfu stamps containing the names of prytanes (Kiemann,
Les Isles Ioniennes, pp. 47, 54), or in the numerous stamps on amphora-handles collected
by Dumont in Insc. Ger antiques de la Grece. The word following the name may be
apxovros, for aught we know.
IV.
Another fragment still smaller, .09 m. x -07 m., has a name clearly in the genitive.
To the left we read : —
YO A I
A^
It is evident that the top line runs from right to left, and we probably have a name
ending in l\ov. If the next line turns back in a boustrophedon order, we may here have
i-rrl —CXov apyovros or apxireVrovo?. Such a turning back of the second line is seen
on one of the Megalopolis tiles.1 In our inscription, as in that one, AYO is also possible,
since the mark at the edge of the fragment, after the supposed A, looks oblique, and may
be a part of a Y. The reading of the name from right to left has many parallels in
stamps. A Megalopolis tile2 has the name <&i\nnroipriv read this way. The three tiles
from Tanagra read in the same way,3 as well as one of the three tiles from Chios before
mentioned. The maker of the stamp in these cases preferred to cut his letters running
in the usual order, regardless of the hundreds of impressions which would thus read
reversed.
We are sure that in some cases the stamps were not cut as a whole, but were made up
of movable letters.4 On an amphora-handle from the Piraeus,5 the reading is from
right to left; but the letters $, P and K are left turned the other way. In turning his
letters the workman forgot to arrange them so as to make the direction of the word and
of the letter consistent.
V.
A series of four tile-fragments found on the south slope below the Heraeum just at the
close of the work (spring, 1894). These contain : —
eTTITTOAYrNO
eTTITTO
GT
They are all impressed on the concave side of fragments about an inch thick. The
letters are not raised, as in the other fragments here catalogued, but depressed. The fact
that in No. 1 £ is so close to the IT as not to allow room for the cross-bar of the latter to
extend so far to the left as in Nos. 2 and 3 points to a slight difference in the moulds,
possibly due to the use of movable letters. The date of this stamp is evidently very late.
Whether Polygnotus was an architect or a sacred official for the year is not known.
1 /. H. S. XIII. p. 336, No. 1.
2 Ibid.
3 B. C. H. XI. p. 209.
4 Bliimner, Technologie und Terminologie, II. p. 32
and Dumont, Inscr. CV'ram., pp. 395, 390, 398, where are
cuts illustrating the making up of these stamps, in some
of which letters are misplaced.
6 B. C. H. XI. p. 207.
INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE ARGIVE HERAEUM
read 'Ettlvlko<; dp-^iTeKroiv, but it is quite as likely that eVt is a preposition followed by
a genitive, as in so many of the Corfu stamps containing the names of prytanes (Kiemann,
Les Isles Ioniennes, pp. 47, 54), or in the numerous stamps on amphora-handles collected
by Dumont in Insc. Ger antiques de la Grece. The word following the name may be
apxovros, for aught we know.
IV.
Another fragment still smaller, .09 m. x -07 m., has a name clearly in the genitive.
To the left we read : —
YO A I
A^
It is evident that the top line runs from right to left, and we probably have a name
ending in l\ov. If the next line turns back in a boustrophedon order, we may here have
i-rrl —CXov apyovros or apxireVrovo?. Such a turning back of the second line is seen
on one of the Megalopolis tiles.1 In our inscription, as in that one, AYO is also possible,
since the mark at the edge of the fragment, after the supposed A, looks oblique, and may
be a part of a Y. The reading of the name from right to left has many parallels in
stamps. A Megalopolis tile2 has the name <&i\nnroipriv read this way. The three tiles
from Tanagra read in the same way,3 as well as one of the three tiles from Chios before
mentioned. The maker of the stamp in these cases preferred to cut his letters running
in the usual order, regardless of the hundreds of impressions which would thus read
reversed.
We are sure that in some cases the stamps were not cut as a whole, but were made up
of movable letters.4 On an amphora-handle from the Piraeus,5 the reading is from
right to left; but the letters $, P and K are left turned the other way. In turning his
letters the workman forgot to arrange them so as to make the direction of the word and
of the letter consistent.
V.
A series of four tile-fragments found on the south slope below the Heraeum just at the
close of the work (spring, 1894). These contain : —
eTTITTOAYrNO
eTTITTO
GT
They are all impressed on the concave side of fragments about an inch thick. The
letters are not raised, as in the other fragments here catalogued, but depressed. The fact
that in No. 1 £ is so close to the IT as not to allow room for the cross-bar of the latter to
extend so far to the left as in Nos. 2 and 3 points to a slight difference in the moulds,
possibly due to the use of movable letters. The date of this stamp is evidently very late.
Whether Polygnotus was an architect or a sacred official for the year is not known.
1 /. H. S. XIII. p. 336, No. 1.
2 Ibid.
3 B. C. H. XI. p. 209.
4 Bliimner, Technologie und Terminologie, II. p. 32
and Dumont, Inscr. CV'ram., pp. 395, 390, 398, where are
cuts illustrating the making up of these stamps, in some
of which letters are misplaced.
6 B. C. H. XI. p. 207.