A palindrome has been found inscribed on an ancient amulet discovered on the island of Cyprus.
Palindromes are words or phrases, like noon and radar, which are the same when spelled normally or backwards.
The amulet, estimated to be around 1,500 years old, was discovered in Nea Paphos, an ancient city located in the southwestern region of Cyrus. Inscribed on the jewelry are 59 characters, which read the same forward and backward.
In English, the test translates as "Lahweh is the bearer of the secret name, the lion of Re secure in his shrine," naming one of the gods in the pantheon of the ancient land.
Images carved into the surface on the opposite side of the characters include the god Osiris, lying on a boat. With him is the God of silence, Harpocrates, sitting on a stool, holding a finger to his lips, as if he is commanding people to become quiet. A dog-like creature called a cynocephalus is displayed in a similar position, as if repeating the urging of Harpocrates.
In "the classic version, the cynocephalus faces Harpocrates with paws raised in adoration. We can find no justification for the cynocephalus's gesture of raising its right paw to its lips in a manner similar to Harpocrates," Joachim Śliwa, a professor at the Institute of Archaeology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, said.
Harpocrates is normally drawn sitting on a lotus flower, with his legs pulled upward. These abnormalities suggest the person who designed the piece did not fully understand the nature of his subjects. Additionally, both Harpocrates and the cynocephalus were shown with crisscrossed lines, signifying each should be mummified along with Osiris. Although acceptable for the dog-headed creature, such a marking is inappropriate for Harpocrates. The creator of the amulet also made a pair of mistakes when inscribing the text, replacing one letter with another.
"Paphos, which has been inhabited since the Neolithic period, was a centre of the cult of Aphrodite and of pre-Hellenic fertility deities. Aphrodite's legendary birthplace was on the island of Cyprus, where her temple was erected by the Myceneans in the 12th century BC and continued to be used until the Roman period," Unesco stated on a Web page about the ancient city of Nea Paphos, where the unusual artifact was found.
Amulets like the one found in Cyprus were believed to provide protection to the wearer from a variety of dangers.
Popular palindromic phrases in the English language include "Madam, I'm Adam," and "Rise to vote, Sir." Two lesser-known examples are "Was it a car or a cat I saw," and "Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas."
Discovery of the ancient amulet and investigation of its markings are profiled in the journal Studies in Ancient Art and Civilization.
