IGI3 646 Dedication by Smikros the tanner

Dedication by Smikros the tanner

IG I³ 646 Date: ca. 510-500 BC

Smikros dedicated (me), (sc. Smikros) the tanner (skulodesph-),^[1] Euthykles made me.^[2]

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References:

IG I³ 646 (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

Raubitschek, Dedications 58 (PHI)

Translation by: Edmund Stewart

Monument type: Columnar base

Inscription type: Dedication (private)

Original location: Acropolis

Findspot: Acropolis (Acropolis Museum 6972)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The inscription appears on two fragments of a square base for a column, which would have supported the dedication. The occupational term translated as ‘tanner’ is either skylodepses or skylodepsos (literally ‘hide-softener’). This may indicate either the curing of animal hides (with smoke or fat) or ‘true’ tanning by means of soaking hides for nine to twelve months in tannins of progressively increasing strengths (i.e. solutions made from water and vegetable matter). The latter process is much more time-consuming, and so requires greater capital investment, but results in a permanent change to animal skins and so a more durable and waterproof leather product (see C. van Driel-Murray, The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology, 2009, 485-87). It is unclear whether tanning proper had developed by the late sixth century. Theophrastus was certainly aware of tanning processes using oak bark and acacia seeds (Hist. Plant. 3.8.6, 4.2.8), while the ‘hobnail boots’ produced in the ‘House of Simon’ at Athens in the second half of the fifth century may well have required tanned leather soles (Sanidas, G., La production artisanale en Grèce, 2013, 102-3, no. I.E1). It is perhaps notable that only men (such as Smikros) are listed as tanners in Athens, which may suggest a specialised tanning industry; whereas the work of curing individual hides is, in other societies, generally undertaken by women in a domestic context (C. van Driel-Murray, L'artisanat romain, 2001, 58). Our inscription further suggests that tanning may have become a specialist occupation, distinct from that of the shoemaker, from before the start of the fifth century (cf. O. Lau, Schuster und Schusterhandwerk, 1967, 54, who does not date this development earlier than 500). The river Ilissus was likely the site of specialist tanneries from before c. 440, since a decree of that date prohibited tanning upstream from the sanctuary of Herakles (IG I³ 257). The work of tanners may to some extent have overlapped with those of fullers (see IG I³ 554), or the launderers (plynes) who were also seemingly active on the banks of the Ilissos (see IG II³ 4, 635). On dedications including occupational titles see IG I³ 546. [2] The quality of the carving appears to be high and the stone carver has been identified with the creator of the Hekatompedon inscription (IG I³ 4) around two decades later (see Raubitschek Dedications, pp. 60, 501-2; P.A. Butz, The Art of the Hekatompedon Inscription, 2010, 125-7). This individual, conceivably perhaps Euthykles himself, was a pioneer of the stoichedon style and seemingly a professional engraver: a specialism which begins to appear in the early fifth century. Butz (pp. 127-9) suggests his career may have begun under the tyrants, perhaps including a dedication by the Peisistratid Hipparchos between 520 and 515 (IG I³ 1470), and culminated around 485 with his ‘masterpiece’ of the Hekatompedon inscription. But Stephen Tracy (ZPE, 206, 2018, 79-81) has objected that differences in letter forms mean that Smikros’ dedication cannot be the work of the ‘Hekatompedon Master’.

Added: 19 Aug 2025
Updated: 19 Aug 2025
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