Details

LOT 0525

Greek Rhodian Stamped Amphora Handle Fragment

131 B.C.

3 1/4 in. (49 grams, 82 mm).

With stamped retrograde inscription and rectangular panel : 'ΕΠΙ NΙΚΑΣΑΓΟΡΑ[Σ]' = under Nikasagoras. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Acquired in the 1970s.
From the private collection of a retired East Anglian teacher.

Literature

Cf. Mandescu, D., ‘The Chronology of the Rhodian Stamped Amphora Handles in the South-Eastern Proximity of the Carpathian Basin. A Case Study: the Late Iron Age Settlement at Cetățeni’ in Berecki, S., Iron Age Chronology in the Carpathian Basin, Proceedings of the International Colloquium from Târgu Mureş, 8-10 October 2015, Bibliotheca Musei Marisiensis, series Archaeologica XII, Cluj-Napoca 2016, pp.357-388, pl.3, no.E31.

Footnotes

This fragment of Rhodian Amphora carries the Eponym official 'Nikasagoras', referring to the Eponym Officer of Rhodes of the year in which the amphora was produced and stamped. He is a well known eponym, also attested by an inscription. His stamps are individualised in comparison to those of the other two namesakes, Nikasagoras the Elder (circa 240 B.C.) and Nikasagoras 1 (circa 172–171 B.C.). These officers seem to have been those of the annually chosen priests of Helios who were the dating authorities of the Rhodian state.