Stone of Terpon

The Stone of Terpon or Pebble of Antibes ("Galet d'Antibes") is an ancient artifact excavated near the seawall of Antibes, France (the ancient "Antipolis") in 1866 ( [http://www.archeoprovence.com/biblio/f.htm] ). It is a stone of supposedly phallic shape (23" long, 8" thick, 73 lbs.), with a carved inscription in Ionic Greek reading:

:ΤΕΡΠΩΝ ΕΙΜΙ ΘΕΑΣ ΘΕΡΑΠΩΝ ΣΕΜΝΗΣ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗΣ ΤΟΙΣ ΔΕ ΚΑΤΑΣΤΗΣΑΣΙ ΚΥΠΡΙΣ ΧΑΡΙΝ ΑΝΤΑΠΟΔΟΙΗ

In standard Greek orthography the text would read: : It is kept in the Musée d’Histoire et d’Archéologie adjacent to that same seawall in Antibes.

The inscription has been dated to between 450 - 425 BC.( [http://poinikastas.csad.ox.ac.uk/4DLink3/4DACTION/LSAGwebDisplayInscription?searchTerm=WC&searchType=browse&searchField=region&returnList=0&sequence=0&thisListPosition=267] )

Catalog references

*L.H. Jeffery: "Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (LSAG)", no. 288.03
*H. Roehl, "Inscriptiones Graecae antiquissimae (IGA)", no. 551
*H. Roehl, "Imagines Inscriptionum Graecarum antiquissimarum", edition 3 pp. 31 no. 52
*"Carmina Epigraphica Graeca", no. 400.