Inscriptions from Phlius

Abstract

The inscriptions discussed in this article were found at Phlius during the investigations made there in 1924 by Dr. C. W. Blegen of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, under the direction of Dr. B. H. Hill.2 The most important are a group of archaic inscriptions, now at Herakleion, where a bath of ancient Nemea has been converted into a small museum. They are cut on blocks of poros whose peculiar working is sufficiently significant to merit description (Fig. 1). The face with the inscription is, on the average block, 0.77 m. by 0.265 m.; the third dimension is 0.77 m. The top surface is square, with anathyrosis in front and back, and is otherwise smooth and flat. The left side has anathyrosis on the front, top, and back edges. The right side has a vertical channel, rougrhly cut, about 0.05 m. wide and 0.13 m. to 0.15 m. from the front edge, and a similar one cut at an equal distance from the back edge. A vertical semicircular channel 0.12 m. wide, also roughly worked, marks the centre of the surface. On the bottom there are two narrow grooves similar to those on the side and connecting with them, extending parallel to the face of the block. Between them the surface is worked smoothly in a shallow, gently curving, depression. The front and back surfaces are finished smoothly. In addition to the blocks bearing inscriptions, several others of the same description were found built into walls and graves of the Roman period. Those used in graves were generally placed as cover slabs for long, narrow, trench-like crypts, the walls of which were also, in part, built of the same blocks. 1. This inscription appears on a surface 0.81 m. by 0.265 m. The thickness of the block is 0.67 m. The text extends from left to right along the lower edge of the block, the top line