Yvon Garlan

The letters engraved on Greek amphoric stamps by a craftsman more or less competent should not be read as a printed text. It is particularly true in regard to intaglio stamping (englyphique) of Heraclea Pontica stamps whose decipherment must take into consideration certain “lapses” and “errors” which appeared during the engraving and especially printing of the former. An example can be provided by a stamp dating back to the beginning of Heraclean stamping c. 390 BC and representing the abbreviation of a magistrate’s name tentatively read as ΛΕ- (with a problematic ending). Yet a thorough investigation enables us to suggest the initial segment ΑΕ- which often replaces ΑΙ- at the beginning of the well-known name of ΑΕ(ΘΗΡ)- ΑΙ(ΘΗΡ).