Nestor's Cup 730 BCE (Aegean Lineage)

For translation methodology see: How to Translate Alphabetic Akkadian Texts

October 3, 2023) Nestor's Cup. It was found on the Italian island of Ischia off the coast of Naples. The text is scratched on the side of the cup half way down.  It begins under the right handle. Its style is half way between Aegean Island and Philistine which agreed with its mid 700's date.  The text was scratched onto the cup on the island. It is a defense of astrology magic relative to emotion magic. It reads:

  1. Revelations can be lunar-energized for catching-the-eye of the Baker's (Sun god Hu) emanations.  |   [sentence]  |  Starvation is breaking-through [3 words]  |  Energize the threads.  Optimize the combing (of life network). Nourish the revelations (of life forms).
  2. Astrological-owls manifest emanations. Those pasture-powers (star filled night sky) can manifest the neglected-ones (eagle-vultures). Are not [word] being opened?  Break-out the astrological-magic.  [missing words].  Anxiety involves astrology-magic's [word].  Nothing is emotionally-affecting fertility-fluids
  3. Hu is being emotionally-triggered by nothing.  The shepherds (emotional magic crafters) are causing the baking.  Astrological-powers do not frustrate anything. |  Involving Alu (life powers) is not the same. Emanations [missing words] are hoping for [word].

The cup is now located at the Villa Arbusto Museum in the village of Lacco Amerno, in Ischia, Italy.  Photo by Marcus Cyron (2018) via Wikimedia commons at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nestorbecher_auf_Ischia.jpg

This cup was found on the island of Ischia off the coast of Naples on on the trade route along the Italian peninsula. 

Nestor's Cup

(October 2, 2023) This cup, called Nestor's Cup, was found in 1954 by Giorgio Buchner on the island of Ischia off the coast of Naples, Italy. It was found in a mass grave near the ancient village of Pithikoussai. It is dated to the Geometric Period of iron age pottery (750-700 BCE) which was sequenced from the archaeology of Cyprus.  This text has falsely been aimed to be one of the oldest Greek inscriptions but that is not true. 

The was found in a grave containing at least three human individuals of different ages. None was a child. The grave also contained charred remains of a few animals which included a sheep, some birds, and possibly from one dog. Nestor’s cup was found in fragments scattered across a mound of black earth measuring 3.8 by 2 meters in diameter which Buchner identified as cremation remains (item number 168). This lens of blackish earth contained ashes, bones, and grave goods.  (Gigante and all, Oct 2021)

References

Buchner G., Russo CF. (1955) La coppa di Nestore e un’iscrizione da Pitecusa dell’VIII secolo av. Cr. RAL.  VIII (10):215–234.
Melania Gigante, Alessia Nava, Robert R. Paine,I vana Fiore, Francesca Alhaique, Carmen Mariarosaria Esposito,Alessandra Sperduti, Jacopo Bonetto,Teresa Elena Cinquantaquattro, Bruno d’Agostino, Luca Bondioli  (October, 2021) Who was buried with Nestor’s Cup? Macroscopic and microscopic analyses of the cremated remains from Tomb 168 (second half of the 8th century BCE, Pithekoussai, Ischia Island, Italy). Plos One. Online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257368

Watkins, Calvert (1976) Observations on the "Nestor's Cup" Inscription Harvard Studies in Classical Philology Vol. 80, pp. 25-40. Online at: https://doi.org/311231

Translation Details

(February 9, 2024 - fixed letter error) Top image has close up of right part of line 1. Lower image shows the rest of line 1. Base photo on tumbler blog dedicated to the memory of archaeologist Richard Miles: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/richard%20miles?sort=top

Translation of Line 1 in Akkadian (Med Text 43)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold)  
  1. Nu  EZu  TuiQu  Za'u  Zu  |  [clause ]  |  EKu  Ga'u  T[3 or 4 letters] | Gu  Qu.  ŠeQu  RaKu.  Bu  Nu. (Med Text 42.1) 

(Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)

In English

  1. Revelations can be lunar-energized by  catching-the-eye of the Baker's (Sun god Hu) emanations.  |   [sentence]  |  Starvation is breaking-through [3 words]  |  Energize the threads.  Optimize the combing (of life network). Nourish the revelations (of life forms).

October x, 2023) Top image has close up of right part of line 2. Middle image shows lines 2 and 3 missing their front ends. Bottom image shows the start of line 3.

Translation of Line 1 in Akkadian (Med Text 43)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold)  
  1. Ḫu'u  Zu  Du.  A  Ta'u  Du  EGu.  Yu  E[1]  Pu?  Ga'u  Tu.  E[4] Ya.  ḪaŠu  Tu  [1]'  Ku.  E  Ne'u  Mu (Med Text 42.2) 
  2. Ḫu  IMu  E.  Re'u  ZaḪu  A.  IRu  EZu  E  Ya  |  Ku  ALu  Šu  Ya.  Zu  Tu[1]  [phrase]  [1]'  AQu  R[1]

(Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)

In English

  1. Astrological-owls manifest emanations. Those pasture-powers (star filled night sky) can manifest the neglected-ones (eagle-vultures). Are not [word] being opened?  Break-out the astrological-magic.  [missing words].  Anxiety involves astrology-magic's [word].  Nothing is emotionally-affecting fertility-fluids
  2. Hu is being emotionally-triggered by nothing.  The shepherds (emotional magic crafters) are causing the baking.  Astrological-powers do not frustrate anything. |  Involving Alu (life powers) is not the same. Emanations [missing words] are hoping for [word].
Watkins, Calvert (1976) Observations on the "Nestor's Cup" Inscription Harvard Studies in Classical Philology Vol. 80, pp. 25-40. Online at: https://doi.org/311231

Comparison With Greek Translation

(October 3, 2023) The biases of those seeking to prove the ancient reliability the Bible and the Greek Illiad and Odyssey a have corrupted ancient linguistics for a long time. This is a good example of the latter. 

The first translators wanted to see the name “Nestor” on this cup in order to associate it with the Illiad quote.  


"Nestor’s cup was “a beautiful cup… studded with golden nails; on each handle, a pair of golden doves was fed” (Iliad, 11.632–637)." 

The cup was so big that only Nestor could lift it from the table when it was full. The cup was used to drink a thick fortifying beverage reserved for heroes.

These pseudo Greek translations claimed for the cup are based upon wildly incorrect letter assignments. Most of their word definition are also wrong when compared to standard ancient Greek definitions. (Definitions here are the consensus of all the academic ancient Greek dictionaries at University of Chicago’s Logeion online at https://logeion.uchicago.edu) 

Line 1

Line 2

Line 3