MAMA XI 112 (Akmoneia) 
Votive dedication of marble lion
- Type of monument:
- Votive lion.
- Location:
- Banaz Köyü (Akmoneia): in a house.
- Description:
- Head of a lion in white marble, bored for use as the spout of a fountain. Broken below and behind; the inscription runs across the lion’s forehead.
- Dimensions:
- Ht. 0.30+; W. 0.32; letters 0.010-0.022.
- Record:
- Line drawing; MB notebook copy; photographs (1955/110).
- Publication:
- Mango and Ševčenko 1978: 19, no. 22 (SEG 28, 1114).
- Date:
- Fourth to sixth century AD (letter-forms; PN Constantine)
ὑπὲρ εὐχῆς Κοσταν-
τίνο̣υ̣ πρήσμονος
In fulfilment of the vow of Constantine, (?) sawyer.
Illustrations:
Photograph of MAMA XI 112 (Akmoneia 14: 1955-110)
Drawing of MAMA XI 112 (Akmoneia 14: 1955-110)
This monument is now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, having been purchased from an antiquities dealer in 1969. In their publication of the monument, Mango and Ševčenko describe it as a ‘marble water spout in the shape of a lion’s head’; however, Ballance was certain that the stone had been bored for re-use as a spout at a later date. Mango and Ševčenko 1978 give the provenance of the monument as ‘Possibly Eskişehir’, whence the classification of the monument under ‘Dorylaion (?)’ in SEG.
The fourth letter of line 2 appears to be an omicron and upsilon in ligature. The reading and sense of the final word are not certain; Ballance read ΠΡΟΣΜΟΝΟΣ, but his photographs seem to support the reading ΠΡΗΣΜΟΝΟΣ (thus also Mango and Ševčenko), presumably the genitive of an unattested word *πρίσμων, πρίσμονος, meaning ‘sawyer’. The normal term for a sawyer is (ξυλο-, λιθο-)πρίστης (Robert, OMS VII 76-8), while the thing sawed is a (παρα-, ἀπο-)πρίσμα; the hypothetical term *πρίσμων could have been coined on the model of τέκτων, ‘carpenter’.