Learning to write in indigenous Sicily: A new abecedary from the necropolis of Manico di Quarara (Montelepre, south-west of Palermo)

In August 2015 the Soprintendenza dei Beni Artistici e Culturali of Palermo retrieved a number of archaeological objects which had been part of private collections in Montelepre (south-west of Palermo). Among them was a late-archaic black-glaze ‘type C’ cup, probably produced in Sicily. The foot of the cup bears a graffito, which adds to the small corpus of short inscriptions engraved on Greek vases unearthed in the same necropolis. The present article offers an epigraphic study of the graffito and discusses its importance for the spread of the Greek alphabet and of Greek writing habits among the non-Hellenic peoples of ancient Sicily.