The Oscan Tablet (Latin Tabula Osca) or Agnone Tablet is a bronze inscription written in the Oscan alphabet that dates to the 3rd century BC. It was found near the town of Agnone in Molise, Italy. Since 1873, the original has been kept in the British Museum.[ British Museum Collection] It is, along with the Tabula Bantina and the Abellano Boundary Stone from Avella, one of the most important inscriptions extant in the long extinct Oscan language.
Discovery
This small
bronze tablet, attached to an iron chain, was discovered at Fonte di Romito, between
Capracotta and Agnone in 1848. It was purchased from the dealer Alessandro Castellani by the British Museum in 1873.
Inscription
Inscribed on both sides, the tablet chronicles a series of dedications to different deities or supernatural beings.
[ A Critical and Historical Introduction to the Ethnography of ancient Italy, by John William Donaldson, London, John W. Parker and Son, 1852.] The front side has 25 lines and describes the sacred place where religious ceremonies in honour of the goddess Ceres took place. It also explains that every year during the
Floralia festival worshipers were expected to offer sacrifices to four different gods and that every other year a special ceremony was held at the sanctuary's altar. The other side of the tablet (with 23 lines) lists 17 different divinities that the local
Samnites population were at any one stage devoted to. It also states that only those paying regular dues would be admitted to the
sanctuary.
See also
