Description: Lead tablet, with two folds, now preserved in four adjoining fragments. W: 13.7 cm × H: 1.9 cm × D: 0.012 cm. Weight: 19.70 g.
Layout description: The tablet is inscribed on both sides. The same tablet also preserves one further inscription on the same side (37B), which is related to the one on side A (35A), the latter containing the summary and the former the question. Since 37B presupposes the existence of 36B, this must have been the tablet’s first use. At present, side B is covered by insulating tape used to secure the two fragments together, which hampers legibility.
Dialect: Doric
Alphabet: Archaic
Letters: Letter height: 0.3 cm (l. 1); 0.35-0.4 cm (l. 2). As the editors note, the second line of the inscription is laid out in stoichedon style.

Date: end of 5th century BC

Findspot: Dodona, Evangelidis’ excavations 1929-1935.
Original location: Dodona
Last recorded location: Archaeological Museum of Ioannina inv. M68; AMI 11985
Autopsy: autopsied by Elena Martín González in 2025.

Editor(s): Elena Martín González; Stavroula Konstantopoulou
Edition based on: Facsimile, photograph, and autopsy conducted by Elena Martín González (2025).

Bibliography: I.Dodone DVC 36B (Chaniotis 2016, §206; Chaniotis 2017a, 59; Bonnechere 2018, §33 n. 106; Chaniotis 2018a, 333 and 339 no. 17; CIOD 36B [last consulted 16/07/2026]).

English Translation

God. Good Fortune. Do the iron objects rightfully belong to Philotis?

Spanish Translation

Dios. Buena Fortuna, ¿pertenecen legítimamente los objetos de hierro a Filótide?

Commentary

This private enquiry, which does not include the name of the consultant, belongs to the well-attested category of consultations concerning property matters, in this case the rightful ownership of σιδάρια by a woman named Philotis; on legal disputes in the Dodona oracular tablets, see Chaniotis 2018a. According to Chaniotis 2017a, σιδάρια refers to iron objects and not to the Byzantine coinage σιδάρεοι, as proposed by the editors of I.Dodone DVC. On the role of women in the oracular consultations at Dodona, see Katsadima 2017a and Frank 2024; on women and property ownership in the epigraphic evidence from Dodona in particular and northwestern Greece more generally, see Frank 2026.

Chaniotis 2018a interprets the text as an oracular response. On the controversial issue of the presence of answers on the Dodona tablets, see Martín González 2021.

Ithaca Results: Ithaca predicts Italy, including Magna Graecia, as the most probable geographical origin of this inscription (73.35%), with Epirus ranking second (7.12%). Regarding chronology, the highest probability falls at the beginning of the 4th century BC, specifically in the period 400-390 BC. See the Ithaca results and associated files.

Themes / Keywords: Property

Project: “Dodona Travels to Ithaca. Artificial Intelligence Applied to the Edition of Greek Inscriptions”. Grant CNS2023-144714, funded by MICIU/AEI (10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR.

Copyright: Except where otherwise indicated, the original editorial content of this lemma is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Third-party material incorporated into or linked from this lemma is not covered by this license and remains subject to applicable copyright and to any terms of use specified by the respective rights holders or sources. When citing this lemma, please include its identifier, URL, and date of consultation.

File history: Created on 2026-06-26 by Stavroula Konstantopoulou.

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