CIG 2312: Marble Altar

Modern Publication(s): CIG 2312 (Editio princeps); Hicks 6; EAD XXX Addenda, p. 377

Brief description: Circular altar

Attributes

Inscription Type: Dedication

Object Type: Altar

Material: Marble

Original Location: Rheneia or Delos. Hicks cites the view of Tournefort: that the altar probably came from Rheneia. Similar altars are common on Delos. (Hicks)

Provenance: Rheneia or Delos.

Date: 100-1C BC

Dimensions: H: 0.875; Diameter: 0.656. Upper surface hollowed out to a depth of 8 in. (Hicks)

Writing: Inscribed.

Condition: In two pieces. (Leeds)

Decoration: “The circumference is adorned with ox-heads, fillets and festoons of fruit and corn, on which birds are alighting and pecking.” (Hicks)

Collection

Location: Leeds City Museum.

Collector(s): Part of a collection purchased by Mr Benjamin Gott and Mr Rawson when travelling from Smyrna through the islands to Athens in 1815. Gott died of a fever at Piraeus, and the marbles then passed to Mr Rawson. They were kept at Rawson’s house in Halifax for several years, during which time six of the inscriptions were copied and sent to Böckh for inclusion in CIG. On Rawson’s death in 1845 or 1846, Mr Rawson’s brother, Mr S. Rawson, sold the marbles to Mr William Gott (brother of B. Gott). W. Gott then passed the marbles to his son, Rev. Dr. John Gott, who presented them with a few exceptions (Nos. 1-6, Hicks) to the Museum at Leeds (Hicks).

Date collected: Collected by Rawson in 1815.

Accession or catalogue number: LEEDM.D.1967.1236

Bibliography

M.-T. Couilloud, Les Monuments funéraires de Rhénée (Paris, 1974), Addenda, p. 377. (= EAD XXX)

E. L. Hicks, 'The Collection of Ancient Marbles at Leeds,' JHS 11 (1890), 255-270, no. 6.

The 44th Report of the Council of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 44 (1864), 11-12, 28.

Web Links

Greek text, from PHI