records and general accounts] I have recorded [the previous times], beginning from Cecrops becoming first king of Athens, until []uanax was archon in Paros, and Diognetus in Athens. The critical word here is “general,” which represents a Greek original for which Selden could read only the last three letters, νῶν; these are the ending of the genitive plural. Jacoby hypothesized the word was an adjective and restored it to κοινῶν, meaning “common, general, ordinary”. This is consistent with Jacoby's theory for the source of the Chronicle’s documents, namely that the author used a variety of selections from diverse materials available in the third century BC. The Ashmolean Web site then translated this into English as shown above. Young and Steinmann, however, maintain that “The writer of an annalistic history that professes to give exact dates for events would not assure readers of his credibility by saying that his information was derived from the “common” folklore ... For the Parian Marble, such reassurance would be given if the original word, for which the genitive plural ending - νῶν has survived, was not κοινῶν, but Ἀθηνῶν,” i.e. “of Athens,” taking the word as a noun (Athens was a plural noun in classical Greek). This restoration would give the reader the assurance that the writer of the tablet had an authoritative source for his information, as follows: [From] al[l the public records and histories of Ath]ens I have recorded [the previous times], beginning from Cecrops becoming first king of Athens, until []uanax was archon in Paros, and Diognetus in Athens. One other conjecture for the source of the Parian Chronicle’s information is of historical interest. In 1788, Joseph Robertson went to considerable length in arguing that the tablets were of relatively recent date and entirely fraudulent. His book is accessible under the External links below. The finding of the bottom portion of the tablet on Páros in 1897 has made Robertson's theory untenable. RTI scanning In 2013, Ben Altshuler of the Institute for Digital Archaeology oversaw reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) of the Parian Marble, revealing significant, previously illegible text. RTI scans are also available as part of the Digital Marmor Parium project. Notes References Michael Kerrigan, 2009. The Ancients in Their Own Words, The Parian Marble, p. 144-45, photo of Ashmolean piece and translation excerpts, Michael Kerrigan, Fall River Press, Amber Books Ltd, c 2009. (hardcover. ) External links Ashmolean exhibit including images