Officina di IG XIV2 – A Signature on Two Statuettes from Taranto A New Reading

Abstract

The paper provides a new reading of a mould-made inscription on the back of two clay statuettes found at the end of the 19th century in the Taranto necropolis of Contrada Santa Lucia and dated between the second half of the 1st c. BC and the beginning of the 1st c. AD. The technique of making the inscription, which was imprinted inside the mould after being scratched on the patrix, is not widespread in the Taranto area. The inscription, a Roman anthroponym written in Greek language (a signature), represents an element of complex interpretation, because it remains uncertain whether it is to be attributed to a coroplast or to a workshop owner.