ball stone.ball

Carved and polished stone ball, in porphyry, with the letters SYPAKO cut into it above a hand-written paper label. Inscription: Carved inscription: SYPAKO Handwritten label: W A Porphyry ball from Syracuse. 'Not least fraught with interest was the Latomie (in Syracuse, Sicily), which now constitutes a beautiful garden about an hundred feet below the level of the ground. It has been hewn out of solid rock, which appeared to be as hard as marble. I found in this place a ball of porphyry with Syracuse marked upon it, which probably had come out of some of the sarcophagi: and it is still in my possession.' Quotation from the journals of Dr Robert Wilson (1787-1871).

Wilson, Robert

Early: 1800

stone porphyry