THE SEARCH FOR TEMESA
by Annamaria Bullo Berti

Some years back, during my historical-archaeological research in the mountainous area of Lamezia, a farmer showed me a molded fragment that very much aroused my curiosity.
It had been found in a field of Falerna-Nocera in the neighborhood of the place which some maintain is the location of ancient TEMESA, which became a Roman colony in 194 B.C.
It was possible for me to draw and photograph the fragment, in color and in black-and-white, and to make a cast of the portion where there is an inscription of seven initial letters.

I maintain that the fragment is that of a votive plate, fired and tinted, whose diameter must have been around 46 centimeters. I deduce that it was a votive plate from its shape and from the fact that the inside rim is decorated with diverse alternating bands of obvious significance: a spiral motif and a stylization of "Smilax aspera," a climbing plant with heart-shaped leaves with thorns along the whole stem typical of low-lying Mediterranean foliage. The inside rim is circumscribed by a completely smooth band, in slight relief and lightly grooved.

The outer band with the inscription and another decorative motif is also slightly raised with respect to the preceding one.

The inscription, to my mind, has a dedicatory significance:

Cast of the inscription on the fragment