The stele of Kaminia, the Etruscans and the island of Lemno

An important artefact enriches the section dedicated to writing on the underground floor of the Art Museum: the Kaminia stele, one of the most enigmatic and debated inscriptions in all of classical antiquity, found in Lemno and now housed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Discovered between 1883 and 1885 near the village of Kaminia on the island of Lemnos in the northern Aegean Sea, the stele is dated to the 6th century BC and has attracted particular interest because of the two inscriptions it bears. The stele's alphabet is Greek, of the so-called ‘red’ (or Western Greek) type, but some peculiar features bring it close to the Etruscan alphabet.

Reports by ancient authors about the Pelasgians or Tyrrhenians, who supposedly inhabited Lemno until the conquest of Athens (c. 500 BC), prompted the Italian Archaeological School in Athens to conduct excavations and research on the island to identify the origins of the Tyrrhenians of Italy, i.e. the Etruscans.

The stele, the work of a local workshop, is a long thin slab of limestone originally about two metres high, of which the upper half remains. On the front is engraved in very low relief the figure of a warrior in profile, standing, armed with spear and shield. The face, with a flat head, large eyes and a pronounced smile, is reminiscent of the iconography attested at Lemno, found on vases and other terracotta objects from the Archaic period (7th-6th century BC).
An inscription is engraved around the figure, spread over eight lines: some lines are read from bottom to top, others horizontally from left to right and from right to left in alternating lines. A second inscription, on three lines, incomplete at the bottom, placed vertically on the right side, was written by a different stone carver.

The reading is controversial: one possible interpretation is that the inscription recalls the warrior Aker son of Tavarsa (Aker Tavarsio), representing descent from members of an illustrious family of Lemno. A second interpretation identifies him instead as a Holaie (in Greek Hylaios) possibly from Phocaea in Asia Minor. The stele was a burial marker.

The Stele of Kaminia
The Etruscans and the island of Lemno
Edited by: Italian Archaeological School of Athens
Emanuele Papi | Riccardo Di Cesare | Carlo De Domenico | Germano Sarcone
Fondazione Luigi Rovati | Hypogeum Floor
Corso Venezia 52, Milan
24 September