Abstract
This is a miniature, discovered in Egypt by W.M. Flinders Petrie in 1884.The dial had been burned and was found in pieces in the remains of a private house from late Ptolemaic times. It lay in seventeen fragments until the spring of 2005, when it was reassembled and studied in detail for the first time. It presents three features that make it unique, or at least unusual, among the extant corps of ancient Greek sundials: it is the only such dial made of ivory; it bears an inscription indicating that the lightning and shading of the undercut front face signaled the equinox; and it was found among its owner´s other effects in a private house. Small portions of the dial (including the remains of the plinth or footing) retain a rich, reddish brown color, but the bulk of the surface is in various shades of grey, as a result of exposure to heat. The dial fragments are extremely fragile. Seven day curves are incised, along with usual lines for the seasonal hours. The floating upper right corner cannot be joined to the main body of the dial, as too much of the ivory has been lost in between. All the incised curves and lines were emphasized with a red material. It shows the spectral signature of hematite.
