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]

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

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.

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.