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Merle K Langdon
A New Greek Abecedarium
While walking in recent years in the area of the Attic community of Vari, the undersigned has noticed a number of ancient graffiti cut into level expanses of exposed bedrock. While a full study of them is under way, one inscription is extracted for publication here because of the interest that attaches to it.
The inscription is a complete Old Attic abecedarium of twentyfour letters (Fig. 1). The rock surface bearing it is on the hill Barako or Keramoti, which forms the eastern side of the plain of Vari, some twenty kilometers south of Athens. The hill is composed principally of low quality dolomitic marble that tends to outcrop as irregularly flat expanses of grayish white color with red veining. Ancient passers by, some naming themselves as shepherds or goatherds, were in the habit of scratching their names, short comments and doodles on the rock of the hill. On the piece with the abecedarium, there are more than fifty engravings.
Kadmos, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 0022-7498
Volume: 44, 12/2005
Pages: 175 - 182