The very full recent publication of the Athenian black figure amphora, Ashmolean Museum 213, invites reflection on the graffiti beneath its foot which might offer information about the find place of the vase. It was formerly in the Castellani Collection and taken by Beazley as the name piece of his Painter of Oxford 213.

Of the four inscriptions (see Fig. 1) three are obviously interrelated: the most complete (1) reads cravnas; 2 is probably an incorrect version of the same name with a mistake over the first nu (cranna), while 3 has simply the first two letters cr followed by an incomplete a. Despite the hesitant script it is clear that the writer made three attempts to write the name and succeeded only with the last which is correctly written. The fact that in each case the rho is written in the reverse direction to the rest of the name shows that the three inscriptions are by one hand. This is the first evidence for the name cravnas. The suffix -s suggests Cravna as the owner of the object, this usage being normal for south Etruria. The variant cranna, intended for cra(v)nna (cra(u)nna), may be compared with the occasional doubling of nu met in seventh-century Cerveteri, perhaps a peculiarity of pronunciation.