All that's left (that I can see is NIZ, or maybe ZIN, as all those letters can be flipped and look the same. Anyone have any theories as to what it might have said? Oh, and this might help, it's a Greek glande from 300 B.C.

with 3 letters you won't find a meaning .
the letters probably are " ΝΙΣ "
i can't think of a name ending like that, it doesn't seem to be a verb
find the other letters


where did you find it?

Hmm. seems to have 2 or more letters before that. hard to tell from the light reflection on the photo.. You could try putting a paper on it, and rub a soft pencil on it.Frottage. Might reveal something.. How much does it weight? Seems hefty.. 70 grams?

I got it off of eBay. I'll try the pencil rubbing thing I think.

Wait, actually, it kinda looks like it might have been a B at the beggining

Got to be 'Up your Arse !'

Brilliant

lol that's going to be my first impression block for the rolled glandes

As Parmenion writes, it's --ΝΙΣ. Likely to be the ending of the name ΑΙΝΙΣ. Not "balanizw" You can see the beginning of the first alpha. You can make out traces of the first letter, an Alpha, on the photograph.

I know of (indeed have handled and photographed) a sling bullet with the same inscription in the Ashmolean museum at Oxford (but the letter forms are different). Another one with the same inscription was published in 1862 in Greece. Both were seen, I think, at Antikythera in Greece,

References: A. Rhousopoulos, Archaiologike Ephemeris 1862, 314 no. 401: Αἶνις; also Clive Foss, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1975, 40 n. 9.

Forgive me for being a prig, but buying an object like this off eBay means that it was illegally picked up and exported from Greece; and that now we do not know the provenance of this (for instance, an ancient battlefield or site). At least wear gloves when handling it (I was told to).