Lemnos Stele
The stele was found built into a church wall in Kaminia and is now at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The 6th century date is based on the fact that in 510 BC the Athenian Miltiades invaded Lemnos and Hellenized it. The stele bears a low-relief bust of a helmeted man and is inscribed in an alphabet similar to the western ("Chalcidian") Greek alphabet. The inscription is in Boustrophedon style, and has been transliterated but had not been successfully translated until serious linguistic analysis based on comparisons with Etruscan, combined with breakthroughs in Etruscan's own translation started to yield fruit.
The inscription consists of 198 characters forming 33 to 40 words, word separation sometimes indicated with one to three dots. The text consists of three parts, two written vertically and one horizontally. Comprehensible is the phrase aviš sialχviš ("aged sixty", B.3), reminiscent of Etruscan avils maχs śealχisc ("and aged sixty-five").
Transcription:
- front:
- A.1. hulaieš:naφuθ:šiaši
- A.2. maraš:mav
- A.3. sialχveiš:aviš
- A.4. evisθu:šerunaiθ
- A.5. šivai
- A.6. aker:tavaršiu
- A.7. vanalasial:šerunai:murinail
- side:
- B.1. hulaieši:φukiasiale:šerunaiθ:evisθu:tuveruna
- B.2. rum:haraliu:šivai:eptešiu:arai:tiš:φuke
- B.3. šivai:aviš:sialχviš:marašm:aviš:aumai
Read more about this topic: Lemnian Language