"An Archaic Alphabet on a Thasian Kylix", in: G.R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), The Black Sea, Greece,...

THE BLACK SEA, GREECE, ANATOLIA AND EUROPE

IN THE FIRST MILLENNIUM BC

Edited by

GOCHA R. TSETSKHLADZE

COLLOQUIA ANTIQUA————— 1 —————

PEETERSLEUVEN – PARIS – WALPOLE, MA

2011

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction to the Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII

Introduction to the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX

List of Abbreviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI

List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIII

CHAPTER 1 Ancient Thrace during the First Millennium BC Nikola Theodossiev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CHAPTER 2 The Getae: Selected Questions Alexandru Avram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

CHAPTER 3 The Black Sea: Between Asia and Europe (Herodotus’ Approach to his Scythian Account) J.G.F. Hind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

CHAPTER 4 The Scythians: Three Essays Gocha R. Tsetskhladze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

CHAPTER 5 The American-Ukrainian Scythian Kurgan Project, 2004–2005: Preliminary ReportN.T. de Grummond, S.V. Polin, L.A. Chernich, M. Gleba and M. Daragan

Skeletal Analyses: A.D. Kozak Faunal Remains: O.P. Zhuravlev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

CHAPTER 6 Persia in Europe John Boardman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

CHAPTER 7 The Etruscan Impact on Ancient Europe Larissa Bonfante . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

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VI TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 8 Hallstatt Europe: Some Aspects of Religion and Social Structure

Biba Terzan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

CHAPTER 9 The Elusive Arts: The Study of Continental Early Celtic Art since 1944

Ruth Megaw and Vincent Megaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

CHAPTER 10 An Archaic Alphabet on a Thasian Kylix M.A. Tiverios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

CHAPTER 11 The Iron Age in Central Anatolia Hermann Genz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

CHAPTER 12 The Role of Jewellery in Ancient Societies Iva Ondrejová. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

CHAPTER 13 The Mushroom, the Magi and the Keen-Sighted Seers Claudia Sagona and Antonio Sagona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

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* I would like to thank the French Archaeological School at Athens, more specifically its Director, Prof. D. Mulliez, for the photographs in Figs. 4 and 5, and Lina Kokkinou and Katerina Balla for drawing Fig. 3. I must also thank my colleague Manolis Voutiras for a useful discus-sion, and Deborah Whitehouse and Vivi Saripanidi for translating my original Greek text into English. It is a pleasure to contribute to a volume honouring that indefatigable, profound and discreet authority on antiquity, Prof. Jan Bouzek.

1 The ‘E’ does not appear to have been followed by another letter (Fig. 1). Indeed, the fact that the letters are in the middle of the available space on the surviving fragment of the rim of the kylix means that they were probably incised on the sherd after the vessel had been broken. In this case (which, however, cannot be regarded as the only possibility), there would not have been any other letters. For alphabets on vessels and their use and significance, see below.

AN ARCHAIC ALPHABET ON A THASIAN KYLIX*

M.A. TIVERIOS

AbstractThis paper is concerned with a sherd of a kylix of unknown provenance, now in the Casts Museum of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Although this particular type of kylix was produced during almost the entire 6th century BC mainly by East Greek workshops, our sherd comes from a vase which must have been made in the first decades of this century most probably in Thasos, since similar kylikes were found among the remains of a pottery workshop uncovered at Fari, in the south-western part of the island. The great interest of this sherd does not lie in its original shape but in the alphabet that has been incised on its surface. More precisely, this fragment preserves the first five letters of an Archaic alphabet and thus of the Parian-Thasian one, as indi-cated by the form of the letter beta (C). With this sherd as our starting point we refer more generally to this type of kylix (e.g. provenance and dating) and we examine the phenomenon of itinerant potters, whose presence in the ancient Greek world must have been marked during the Archaic period. Finally, we discuss of the appearance, function and significance of abecedaria and especially of those dating to Archaic times.

The sherd of a kylix with a rim published here (Figs. 1–3) belongs to the col-lection of the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki (no. 666), which is housed in the Casts Museum in the Faculty of Philosophy. Its maximum preserved length is 0.047 m, preserved height 0.025 m, and maximum thickness 0.004 m. The first five letters of the Greek alphabet have been scratched on the outer side of the rim.1 Unfortunately, we do not know where, when or in what circumstances it was found, or how it came into the university’s collection. We thus lack

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Fig. 1. Sherd of an inscribed Thasian kylix. Thessaloniki, Casts Museum, Aristotle University, no. 666.

Fig. 2. Sherd of an inscribed Thasian kylix. Thessaloniki, Casts Museum, Aristotle University, no. 666.


AN ARCHAIC ALPHABET ON A THASIAN KYLIX 319

important information which might have added to our knowledge. However, given the known provenance of the antiquities in the Casts Museum, the sherd very probably came from somewhere in northern Greece,2 a probability which is strengthened, as we shall see, by data furnished by the sherd itself.

As we have said, the sherd comes from the upper part of a kylix with a rim. The surviving profile and the decoration confirm that the kylix belonged to a very common category of black-glazed kylikes from the Archaic period that come mainly from East Greece (but also from Attica, Laconia, the Cyclades and Corinth), have been found all over the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and have been studied by a number of scholars.3 They have a high or a low

2 The vast majority of the sherds in the Casts Museum of the Aristotle University are from northern Greece, most from Karabournaki, where the university briefly conducted excavations in 1930. See Tiverios 1987; 1989b. For a brief history of the Casts Museum, see Stefanidou-Tive-riou 1982, 9–10.

3 There is a considerable literature on the subject. See Cook and Dupont 1998, 129–31; Val-let and Villard 1955, especially 18–34; Boardman and Hayes 1966, 111–15 (Hayes); 1973, 55–58 (Hayes); Calvet and Yon 1978, 46–48; Isler 1978, 77–81; Guzzo 1978, especially 123–28; Martelli Cristofani 1978, 163–66, 195–204; Pierro 1978, 235–38; 1984, 9–11; Rouillard 1978, 276–86; Catling and Shipley 1989, 187–93 and n. 5 for an extensive bibliography, 197–98. Apart from those made by ‘Ionian’, Attic, Laconian, Cycladic and Corinthian potters, either ‘at home’ or in places where they settled either temporarily or permanently, there also seem to be ‘local’ imitations, found, for instance, at Archondiko near Yannitsa to the west of the Thermaic Gulf (this material is unpublished). Cf. also Catling and Shipley 1989, 190.

Fig. 3. Drawing and section of the sherd.Thessaloniki, Casts Museum, Aristotle University, no. 666.


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foot and a low ring base, and are covered inside and out with black glaze. Some small or larger areas are left uncovered, however, and these, sometimes on the rim and the interior, are enlivened with groups of fine parallel lines.

The sherd, which has a dull black glaze, does not permit us to determine the precise type of the kylix from which it came. It was, though, one in which the interior of the rim was higher than the exterior, and both the rim and probably most of the body were covered with black glaze. Only two lines at the top of the rim, one outside and one inside, are reserved. A probably low zone on the body, approximately level with the handles, was also reserved and undeco-rated. The majority of these kylikes have a low foot or low ring base (for example Boardman and Hayes 1966, 112–13, 121 fig. 55.1200 [Hayes]; Blondé et al. 1992, 31 fig. 14.13, 33 fig. 15.13; Bikakis 1985, 75–76 no. 76, pl. 9.76, fig. 4.76) (Fig. 4).

This particular type, with the abovementioned features, is not one of the most popular types in this group of Archaic black-glazed kylikes. More wide-spread, it seems, was a related type, also with a low ring base, and with its most obvious distinguishing feature being one, more rarely two, horizontal rows of black dots enlivening the reserved zone on the body at handle-level (for example Péristéri et al. 1985, 34, 36 fig. 9; Blondé et al. 1992, 31 fig. 14.14–15, 33 fig. 15.14–15; Tiverios 1989a, 619–20) (Fig. 5). Regarding the provenance of the kylix to which the sherd belonged, as also of those with the decorative black dots on the body (which are also frequently distinguished by their dull black glaze), the relatively recent Franco-Greek excavations at Fari in the south-west of Thasos have proved to be very enlightening. They unearthed the remains of a pottery workshop which, the excavators estimate, was operating between 525 and 480 BC (Péristéri et al.1985; Blondé et al. 1992).4 The quantities of vessels that came to light, presumably all manufac-tured at this workshop, included kylikes of both the abovementioned types. We are thus assured that Thasos must have been their main production centre; and this is supported by the letters on the sherd, for the distinctive shape of the letter B (C) in particular confirms that they represent the Thasian (Parian) alphabet.5 Certainly, given what we have already said, the letters were proba-bly scratched in after the vessel was made, indeed after it was broken (see n. 1). Furthermore, we cannot exclude the possibility that the letters were

4 The dating 525–480 BC emerged from a study of the pottery from only two excavation trenches. The workshop may well have been in operation for longer.

5 For this form of the letter B, a letter which assumes more forms than any other letter in the Greek alphabet, see Jeffery 1990, 23, 289; Guarducci 1967, 89–90, 152, 158. Apart from Paros, this particular form of the letter is also found on other Cycladic islands – Naxos, for instance.



‘written’ in some place other than Thasos and that the manufacturer of the ves-sel was of a different origin from the ‘writer’. All the same, it cannot be mere coincidence that Thasos is known to have manufactured the type of kylix to which the sherd belonged and that the alphabet scratched upon it happens to be Thasian.

We have already noted that these Archaic black-glazed kylikes are associ-ated mainly with East Greece, as also with other places, including the Cycla-des. And it just so happens that we know of Thasian kylikes, like those described above, from the Cyclades, specifically Naxos and Paros (Bikakis

Fig. 4. Thasian kylix. Thasos, Archaeological Museum, no. 86 810 14 (photograph: École française d’Athènes – P. Collet).

Fig. 5. Thasian kylix. Thasos, Archaeological Museum, no. 86 282 01 (photograph: École française d’Athènes – P. Collet).


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1985, 73–79). We know of the connections between Paros and Thasos, as also of the Parians’ activities in the north Aegean (Lazaridis 1976, especially 175–79; Bonias 2000, especially 240–45); and we must not forget that the vessels manufactured by the pottery workshop at Fari include some whose origins may be traced firmly to Paros (Tiverios 1989a; Blondé et al. 1992, 24–31).6 After all, there can be no doubt that the first Hellenic pottery workshops estab-lished on Thasos originated from the colony’s metropolis, Paros. It goes with-out saying that the people who were sent to establish a new colony would have included specialists representing all the necessary crafts and occupations, one of which would have been that of the potter. This is confirmed, moreover, by the written tradition, though it admittedly has little to say about such matters. Pliny (Natural History 35. 16, 152) tells us that, on leaving Corinth for Italy, Demaratus took with him three craftsmen who worked in clay (Blakeway 1935, 147–49). In fact, in the case of Thasos this has been more or less con-firmed, because there can be no doubt that the earliest imitation of ‘Melian’ vessels found on the island itself must have been made by Parians, who had arrived in the very earliest years of the Parian colonisation of Thasos to settle permanently, or even temporarily. When all the abundant related material from Thasos itself and the ‘Qasíwn ≠peiron’ has been studied and published, it will come as no surprise if some ‘Melian’ and some imitations of ‘Melian’ vessels found in the Cyclades are ascribed to these same vase-painters.7 In other words, we should have a similar case to that of the Athenian Dresden Painter, for instance, who at some point in his life went to work in Boeotia (Kilinski 1990, 13, with bibliography), or the Polos Painter, who apparently left Corinth and moved to Attic Ceramicus (Dunbabin 1950, especially 200–01), to cite but two examples from the 6th century BC.8

I have expressed the opinion on other occasions that potters moved about much more than is generally suspected (Tiverios 1989a, 617–19). (I take this opportunity to point out that the roots of the modern pottery tradition on Thasos lie in Siphnos: Papadopoulos 1999, 15, 19–23). The migrant potters would have used clay which they took with them from their places of origin, as, for instance, Chian potters working at Naucratis seem to have done (Boardman 1986, 252–58; Morris 1984, 96; Lemos 1991, 211–12, 224; Wachter 2001, 218–19),9 or else clay which they found in their new, temporary or permanent

6 The archaeological evidence to date does not support the opinion of some scholars that they are from Naxos.

7 For the ‘Melian’ vessels found on Thasos and on the mainland opposite, see Zafiropoulou 1985, 2–4, with bibliography.

8 For similar cases, see Tiverios 1989a, 618–19; cf. Tiverios 1988, 163 no. 754.9 For importation of Corinthian clay, see Benson 1985, 20. On the import of clay generally,

see Gill 1987, 82–83, with bibliography.



abodes (for example Langlotz 1977, 432–35). Significantly, ‘in the immediate environs of the workshop uncovered at Fari,’ M. Picon located ‘at least eight varieties of clay’ (Péristéri et al. 1985, 34 and no. 4). And we must not forget, on the basis of the practices of modern traditional workshops, that potters must frequently have used a mixture of different types of clay, each of which would have compensated for any weaknesses in the other; and some of these types of clay might well have come from somewhat distant sources (Valavanis et al. 1990, 35–36; cf. Papadopoulos 1999, 48). So clay analysis, which has played a conspicuous part in ceramics studies in recent years, cannot always help us to identify pottery workshops, because Attic, Corinthian or Parian vessels, for instance, are not manufactured exclusively out of Attic, Corinthian or Parian clay. The Attic vessels found, according to E. Langlotz, in pottery kilns at Miletus (1975, 178 no. 2, 190), or manufactured in Etruria (Gill 1987; Col-onna 1975, 190–92, and pl. 54.1–2; Langlotz 1977, 433 no. 25), or Cyprus10 are indistinguishable in artistic terms from the Attic vessels manufactured in the Ceramicus or anywhere else in Attica.11 Certainly, they too are Attic.

But let us return to the sherd at the Aristotle University and to Thasos, where, along with Parian potters, it seems also that potters working in the black-figure technique came and settled from Attica, Chios and East Greece. Over time, they gradually lost touch with their native cities and, under the influence of their new environment, they created a new Thasian-Chian, Tha-sian-Ionic and Thasian-Attic black-figure style.12 The same thing seems to have happened to the Parian manufacturers of the ‘Melian’ wares, except that in this case, because the bonds between Thasos and the Parian metropolis were very close, the Thasian ‘Melian’ pottery may be distinguished from the Parian ceramics only with considerable care and background knowledge.13 I do not know how many black-glazed and specifically ‘Thasian’ Archaic kylikes have been found in the Cyclades, and on Paros in particular, but we do know the fate reserved for vessels or sherds with poor-quality decoration: they are fre-quently stowed away in museum basements, leaving researchers unaware of

10 This accounts more satisfactorily for the presence of an Attic oinochoe at Amathous in Cyprus, which, in terms of its shape, imitates similar Cypriot vessels. See, for example, Board-man 1980, 107 fig. 123.

11 For similar cases, see Langlotz 1977, 433 no. 25; Tiverios 1989a, 618–19.12 See, most recently, Coulié 2002, especially 1–2, 19–57, 170–75, 222–24, including earlier

bibliography. It is worth remembering Archilocus’ well-known words: ‘Panellßnwn ôihùv êv Qáson sunédramen’ (Strabo 8. 6. 6). For the possibility that an Attic pottery workshop was established at the head of the Thermaic Gulf in about the middle of the 6th century, see Tiverios 1993, 557–58.

13 Both these groups of vessels were manufactured by Parian potters, the only difference being that some worked on Paros and others on Thasos.


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their existence. However, the fact that these kylikes are not very common in the Cyclades (Bikakis 1985, 73–79 nos. 71–80; cf. Dragendorff 1903, 217–18),14 that they are not found at all in the Panionian sanctuary on Delos, that they are frequently present in northern Greece (Tiverios 1989, 619 and no. 36),15 and the fact of the discovery at Fari on Thasos of a pottery workshop which manufactured such vessels, make me believe that these kylikes must be Thasian. Furthermore, the pottery workshops on Paros (and in the Cyclades more generally) do not seem to have been as productive as those on Thasos in the 6th century BC.

It is difficult to date our sherd in the absence of excavational data. Generally speaking, these black-glazed kylikes date between the last decades of the 7th century and 530–520 BC. The dating of the earliest ones is based on the dating of the Corinthian vessels.16 However, if the start of the Early Corinthian period is put at about 605 BC (Tiverios 1991, 631–32), then the earliest black-glazed kylikes have to be dated to about 600 BC. The letters themselves, although they are probably later than the kylix, compare well with similar Thasian-Parian inscriptions of the first half of the 6th century BC. More specifically,

the form of the A, the L (gamma) with its curved right-hand stem, the tall slender D and the E with its oblique bars, the top one longer, and its stem pro-jecting top and bottom, compare with the corresponding letters in the inscrip-tion of Glaucus in the Archaeological Museum on Thasos (Grandjean and Sal-viat 2000, 69–70, fig. 29, with bibliography), dated to about 600 BC. Likewise, the A, the slightly curving C (beta) and the E share similarities with the cor-responding letters in the inscription of Ason in the Archaeological Museum on Paros, dated to about 550 BC (Guarducci 1967, 160–61 n. 6). All this, together with the low rim of the kylix (Figs. 1–3), allows us to date it to the early dec-ades of the 6th century BC. Therefore, it cannot have been manufactured in the pottery workshop excavated at Fari on Thasos, the material remains of which date to the second half of the 6th century BC (see above).

The earliest known abecedaria, most of them on pottery, date to the 7th cen-tury BC (Guarducci 1967, especially 448–50; Lejeune 1983; Wachter 1989; etc.). Whether incised or painted, their presence has been explained in various ways. First of all, they certainly served an educational purpose (Jeffery 1990,

14 The three kylikes which Bikakis (1985, 77–79, pl. 9.78–80) ascribes to the Laconian Ceramicus must also be Thasian-Parian. For Laconian black-glazed kylikes, see Catling and Shipley 1989, especially 190–93.

15 Such kylikes have also been found in parts of modern Bulgaria (see Delev et al. 2000, 156 fig. 7 lower).

16 Generally, for the dating of these kylikes, see Cook and Dupont 1998, 129–31; Catling and Shipley 1989, 188–93, with bibliography.



236–37; Guarducci 1967, 228 fig. 89, 449; etc.). Some of them, apart from anything else, would have been for learning the alphabet: some have been directly linked with students or teachers (Langdon 1976, 17–18; Jeffery 1990, 236–37; etc.); while others may well represent exercises in calligraphy or writing practice (for example Lang 1976, 6). It has also been argued that they served as models for less practised writers (for instance Heubeck 1986, 9). However, there are also cases in which an alphabet is the sole decorative motif on a vessel.17 Indeed, on some humble vessels, the incised alphabet that is their only decoration is accompanied by the vase-painter’s signature and the verb ‘∂gracen’ (‘written by’) (Young 1940, 8 and 7 fig 10.9). And in all likeli-hood, an alphabet as the sole decorative motif not only served an educational purpose but was also of considerable importance itself, since it was the funda-mental tool of written discourse, and also because its presence would have been perceived as evidence of the writer’s, or rather the vessel owner’s, educa-tion. That the abecedaria are more markedly present in the Archaic period may well be due to the fact that their writers wished to demonstrate their ‘learning’ at a time when literacy was a comparatively rare attainment (cf. Guarducci 1967, 449). Other scholars have suggested that the abecedaria may sometimes reflect perceptions relating to the magical aspects of writing, which is perhaps more likely in later eras, from the Hellenistic period onwards. (Amandry and Lejeune 1973, 202–03 [Lejeune]; Lejeune 1983, 7; Heubeck 1986, 9; Dorn-seiff 1925, 115–18; cf. Guarducci 1967, 449; and see below).18 However, the fact that they are found in sanctuaries as votive offerings (Langdon 1976, 17–18; Young 1940, 8–9; 1942, 124–25; Jeffery 1990, 117, pl. 20.16; Wachter 2001, 152–53 [CoP 86]; Walter and Vierneisel 1959, 23–27, fig. 3, Beil. 57) and in graves as burial offerings (Jeffery 1990, 44, 116–17, 236–39, 256, pls. 18.2, 48.18–22, 50.19; cf. Guarducci 1967, 116 fig. 17a–b)19 may be due (especially in the Archaic period) less to magical, prophylactic, or religious – in short, supernatural – considerations (Guarducci 1967, 449) than to a desire to show off the dedicator’s or the deceased’s great accomplishment, namely familiarity with the precious cultural good of writing. And the person con-cerned may well have practised the profession of scribe. It has been suggested, too, that the presence of the alphabet may sometimes carry an erotic signifi-cance; and also that adults may have given vessels with alphabets to children

17 For decorative purposes, see Guarducci 1967, 115–17, 116 fig. 17a–b, 266, 449; Jeffery 1990, 256, pl. 50.19; etc.

18 For letters as magical or philosophical symbols, see also Kritzas 2002, 111.19 I note here the presence of a painted Greek alphabet on an interior wall of an Etruscan

tomb(!) (Jeffery 1990, 237, pl. 48.23).


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to help them learn their letters (Wachter 2001, 282 §315). Lastly, there are also cases in which the presence of the alphabet served other practical purposes.20

Given all that has been said above, if it originally came from a kylix deco-rated with an alphabet (which, as we have said, seems very unlikely, though it cannot be ruled out entirely [see n. 1 above]), our sherd is probably from a public or private site,21 a sanctuary or a cemetery (see above). Incomplete abecedaria with only some, usually the first, letters are found mainly from the 4th century BC onwards, though they are not unknown in earlier periods (Lang 1976, 6–7).22 Their significance cannot be any different from that of the com-plete abecedaria. All the same, in this particular case, since we have here the first five letters of the alphabet, one cannot help recalling the enigmatic fifth letter, epsilon, inscribed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Plutarch wrote a treatise ‘On the El at Delphi’ (perí toÕ EI toÕ ên Delfo⁄v), in which he

asserts, inter alia, that it was not by chance that this letter, alone among the letters of the alphabet, was given the prominence of a sacred offering and set up as a show object, for, apart from anything else, it was believed to have a secret power and was also used as a symbol of communication with the god in several senses (supplicatory, interrogative, dialectic).23 Lastly, in some of these cases, one might wonder whether the letters also represent numerical or musi-cal signs (Kritzas 2002, 105–11; see also Lang 1976, 6) or even conceal con-fidential messages (cf. Proetus’ ‘baneful signs’ [sßmata lugrá]: Illiad 6. 168–169).

Abecederia have been found in various parts of the ancient Greek world, and are not unknown in northern Greece. The most characteristic example comes from the excavations conducted by the late J. Vokotopoulou at the sanctuary of Poseidon at Poseidi in Chalcidice. It is an Attic black-glazed sky-phos of the early 5th century BC, with an Ionic alphabet incised on the under-side of its base (Vokotopoulou 1991, 130, 318 fig. 16; see also Panayotou 1996, 148–49 n. 30 [no. 26], 157 pl. 6.26). However, as we have already noted, our own sherd does not appear to have had more than the first five letters of

20 For instance, on the Vix krater we find letters of the alphabet at various places on the neck, as also on the back of the relief figures which decorate this part of the vessel. The letters undoubt-edly helped to position the reliefs in the right place. See, for example, Jeffery 1990, 191–92, pl. 39.66.

21 Public: for examples, see Lang 1976, 6; private: an early Archaic alphabet engraved on a loom-weight probably comes from a house (Lang 1976, 7 [A1], pl. 1 [A1]).

22 For a similar case from the Archaic period, see Jeffery 1990, 116–17, 130 no. 2, pl. 18.2.23 Plutarch also discusses other possibilities regarding the significance of the Delphic E.

I consider it to be useful to remember the graffito E known from vase fragments discovered in the sanctuary of Samothrace, even though this has been connected with the word ‘êpopteía’ by K. Lehmann (1960, 23–24, 88–91).



24 Compare the alphabet engraved on a roof-tile from Alieis (Jameson 1968, 319, pl. 8oh) or another engraved on a rock at Aiyali on Amorgos (Jeffery 1990, 293, pl. 56.23). Both probably date to the 5th century BC.

the alphabet; and these were probably written not on an intact ‘black-glazed’ kylix, but on one of the resulting sherds after the vase had been smashed. If this is so, then it limits the possible explanations regarding both the purpose this inscribed sherd may have served and its provenance. This is because it is more reasonable to believe that, after the kylix had been broken (whether it was his own or not), some Thasian (or Parian) scratched the first five letters of the alphabet on one of the pieces for any one of several reasons – in order to play a game, perhaps, or to practice his writing or cognitive skills. In this case, our sherd is more likely to have come from an open public or private space24 than to have been a votive offering in a sanctuary or a burial offering in a grave. All the same, nothing can be ruled out, especially if the person who incised the letters happened to be engaged in the same kind of philosophical speculation as Plutarch’s companions at Delphi as they sought to account for the presence of the mysterious letter E in the temple of Apollo.

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