Funerary Stele with Greek Inscription

This funerary stele takes the form of a small pillar and is characterized by a triangular upper outline, known as a “palmette-shaped” top. Immediately below it is a flat, projecting band (listel), followed by a molding with a reversed curved profile (cyma reversa). Further down is an inscription in Greek letters, carefully incised, whose initial portion is missing. The surviving text preserves several letters of the deceased’s name—possibly Mnaseas or Truseas—followed by the expression “son of Athas”, in abbreviated form, corresponding to the patronymic, that is, the indication of family lineage.

The inscription was discovered by chance in 1959 along the banks of the Muzzolito stream, in an area located about six kilometers from the Greek colony of Thurii. The site itself is not known for other archaeological finds. However, the nearby localities of San Mauro and Favella della Corte have yielded burials dating to the 5th and 4th centuries BC, both in the past and in more recent excavations, which some scholars attribute to inhabitants of the Greek city.

In the case of this stele, the use of the Greek alphabet and the presence of Greek personal names allow the funerary monument to be attributed with reasonable certainty to a Greek individual, probably a member of the Thourian community.