Eine epigraphische „Werkstatt“ des 6. Jh. v. Chr. in Olympia?

Abstract

In the 19^th century excavations only one document written in bustrophedon style on a bronze tablet was found. In the last 60 years four other bustrophedon documents in Elean letters and dialect were excavated and published. They all are dated between ca. 600–525 BC.

These four documentary inscriptions show some common, partly unusual characteristics:

1) All round letters (Theta, Omicron, Phi) are of the same diameter of 11 mm. So, these letters, respectively the corresponding writing tools were standardized for quite some time.

2) The letterforms are very similar though their texts were from different times.

3) All these four inscriptions are written on formerly bronze sheets which obviously had become obsolete: two protective sheets for wooden buildings, the part of a cauldron and a pteryx of a hoplite cuirass.

4) The texts of the bronze documents concern Zeus and cult officials of Olympia; they are leges sacrae of the sanctuary without political or agonistic themes.

5) Three of the four documents were found at the environs of the eastern thermal baths. A topographical correlation of these three bronze-sheets seems possible.

The oldest Elean bronze document of ca. 625-575 BC was excavated in the area of the polis of Elis. Its letterforms are very different from those of the four documents of Olympia. So, there is the question, whether the letters of the Elean and Olympian boustrophedon inscriptions belong to the same local alphabet. The different letterforms of the Elean tablet and of the Olympian documents, and the unusual homogeneity of the four tablets of Olympia support the possibility, that in Olympia there was a kind of epigraphical 'workshop' for bronze-documents in the sixth cent. BC which was different from the local script of the Elis area.