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Rectangular
The block was inscribed on all four lateral sides. One of the large faces contains the inscription in Greek given below (a para-Karian inscription or series of marks appears below it); one of the short sides contains illegible traces of writings; the two other sides (one large, one small) contained texts in para-Karian script (i.e. a script bearing some resemblance to Karian, but of uncertain interpretation). For these other texts, see Robert and Deroy; unlike texts in Karian, they have not been successfully deciphered.
Letters:
Site of Chalketor, 10 km west of
Encoded for EpiDoc schema 8.17 on 01-04-2016 by J.M. Carbon.
Edition here based on Blümel
Cf. also: Sokolowski
Further bibliography:
[... having received] the money from the treasurers, let them provide the sacrificial animals and all the remaining things which are customary during each festival. When the portions of (5) meat have been extracted, and once they have given the perquisites to the priestess, let them distribute the remaining meat among the people, reserving for themselves the heads and the intestines. If they remove something more, against the prescriptions, having been convicted (of this offense), let them pay (10) the expenditures for the festival.
[... ayant reçu] l'argent des trésoriers, qu'ils fournissent les animaux sacrificiels et toutes les autres choses qui sont coutumières durant chaque fête. Après avoir prélevé les portions de (5) viande et octroyé les parts d'honneur à la prêtresse, qu'ils distribuent les viandes restantes au peuple, en se réservant les têtes ainsi que les intestins. S'ils prélèvent davantage, à l'encontre de ce qui est prescrit, après avoir été reconnus coupables, qu'ils paient (10) les dépenses de la fête.
Though the regulation is fragmentary and missing all of its introduction, it nonetheless preserves several clues concerning its context. The extant portion of the regulation is concerned with the duties and privileges of a group of officials, as is evident from the plural forms of the prescriptive verbs and from the expression ἑαυτοῖς in line 7. The title of these officials remains unknown and no other information is available from Chalketor itself. One good possibility, however, is that they may have been
About Chalketor, our information is also not very abundant: see Blümel, vol. II, p. 107, for references, and now Boulay - Pont, for a more wide ranging discussion of the site and its epigraphy. Apart from the cult in question here, a local sanctuary of Apollo is also known, cf.
Lines 1-4: The officials are to receive sufficient money from the treasurers, presumably those of Chalketor or of Iasos itself, in order to fund each sacrificial occasion. This would have entailed the purchase of animals from the marketplace, possibly also their rearing and fattening up to ensure valuable offerings; for this idea, cf. again
Lines 4-6: The officials in question in the regulation appear as the primary butchers of the sacrificial animals: they extract the meat from carcasses and distribute portions to everyone involved. For public distributions of meat, see here CGRN 19 (Skambonidai), CGRN 81 (Thebes-on-the-Mykale), lines 20-25, and CGRN 92 (Athens), lines 16-17 and 25-26. Note that such distributions did not necessarily take place immediately after the sacrifice, and possibly after the meat had been cooked.
Lines 7-8: The officials at Chalketor are to receive the heads and the intestines from all sacrificial animals as their prerogatives. For the head, which might otherwise form a part of the priestly portions (γέρα), see e.g. here CGRN 38 B (Chios); occasionally the head was reserved for other personnel assisting the priest or priestess, cf. here CGRN 104 (Halikarnassos), line 44 (
Lines 8-10: For similar rules against priests which forbid the removal of further γέρα than what was prescribed, see here CGRN 37 (Chios), lines 14-16.