entity · text_opheltas_obelos
Opheltas obelos from Palaepaphos-Skales
Also known as: Opheltas spit, Opheltas obelós
Iron roasting spit bearing a syllabic inscription often read as the Greek personal name Opheltas.
Review and provenance
Specialist reviewer: not recorded. Review date: not recorded.
Dataset workflow: proposed. This is separate from specialist review.
Confidence describes the stated assessment; it does not certify expert approval. How review works.
Chronology
Dating intervals may describe uncertainty or phases; their width alone does not establish event duration.
1050 BCE–950 BCE
Precision: approximate
- informs · provides archaeological observation
Palaepaphos-Skales: Tombs of the Late Cypriote IIIB and Cypro-Geometric Periods (Excavations of 2008 and 2011) — Vassos Karageorghis, Efstathios Raptou (2016)Documents object and context.
Locator: Skales tomb context and epigraphic appendix - informs · provides linguistic interpretation
Cypriot Syllabary — Stephen Colvin (2007)Supports cautious reading.
Locator: Possible eleventh-century Greek inscription - informs · contextualizes
Eteocypriot — Philippa M. Steele (2018)Prevents conflation with Eteocypriot.
Locator: Early Cypriot writing and language distinctions
Research description
The object is a possible eleventh-century BCE direct attestation of Greek on Cyprus, written in a late Cypro-Minoan or early Cypriot syllabic tradition. Its date, signary classification, and island-wide implications require caution.
Properties and assignments
A label’s definition and the evidence for assigning it here are separate.
Direct language attestation
Inscription whose language attribution is supported independently of associated object style.
Why does this record have this property?
The inscription is commonly read as Greek Opheltas, but its exact date and signary classification are debated.
- Cypriot Syllabary
supports assignment · Possible early Greek inscription
Evidence and sources
- informs · provides archaeological observation
Palaepaphos-Skales: Tombs of the Late Cypriote IIIB and Cypro-Geometric Periods (Excavations of 2008 and 2011) — Vassos Karageorghis, Efstathios Raptou (2016)Documents object and context.
Locator: Skales tomb context and epigraphic appendix - informs · provides linguistic interpretation
Cypriot Syllabary — Stephen Colvin (2007)Supports cautious reading.
Locator: Possible eleventh-century Greek inscription - informs · contextualizes
Eteocypriot — Philippa M. Steele (2018)Prevents conflation with Eteocypriot.
Locator: Early Cypriot writing and language distinctions
Referenced records
- Palaepaphos-Skales · entity