Editing Sator Square (section)

==Discovery and dating==
[[File:Acrostic Rotas-Sator Square - YDEA - 5755.jpg|thumb|One of the four Sator squares (all in ROTAS-form) found at [[Dura-Europos]], [[Syria]], circa AD 200.]]
[[File:Sator Square Palestra Pompeii (CIL 8623 & 8622a-b).jpg|thumb|The oldest known square. Found in 1936 on a column in the {{ill|Palestra Grande|it}} (CIL 8623), it is now kept in the Pompeii Museum.<ref>{{cite web | website=Parco Archeologico di Pompei | url=https://pompeiicommitment.org/il-quadrato-del-sator-dalla-palestra-grande/ | title=Il Quadrato del Sator dalla Palestra Grande | date=2023 | access-date=14 June 2023}}</ref>]]
The existence of the square was long recognized from early medieval times, and various examples have been found in Europe, [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]], [[North Africa]] (in mainly [[Copts|Coptic]] settlements), and the Americas.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=":0"/> Medieval examples of the square in SATOR-form abound, including the earliest French example in a [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian]] [[Bible]] from AD 822 at the monastery of [[Saint-Germain-des-Prés (abbey)|Saint-Germain-des-Prés]]. Many medieval European churches and castles have Sator square inscriptions.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=":0"/>

The first recognized serious academic study of the square was the 1881 publication of {{ill|Reinhold Köhler|lt=Reinhold Köhler's|de}} historical survey in ''{{ill|Zeitschrift für Ethnologie|de}}'', titled "Sator-Arepo-Formel", and a considerable body of academic research has been subsequently published on the meaning of the square.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=":0"/>

Up until the 1930s, a Coptic papyrus with the square in the ROTAS-form dating from the fourth or fifth century AD was considered the earliest version.{{efn|name=Coptic|The fourth- or fifth-century Coptic papyrus with a Sator square had no evidence of any Christian associations or Christian imagery, it would not be for another two centuries before the first Sator squares appeared that had additional Christian imagery that would definitively associate them as Christian.<ref name=MRS/>}}<ref name=":0"/><ref name=DA>{{cite journal | url=https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m1363&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF | journal=[[Bulletin of the John Rylands Library]] | title=The Sator-Formula And The Beginnings Of Christianity | first=Donald | last=Atkinson | doi=10.7227/BJRL.22.2.6 | volume=22 | issue=2 | pages=419–434 |date=1938 | access-date=10 September 2022}}</ref>  In 1889, British [[ancient historian]] [[Francis J. Haverfield|Francis Haverfield]] identified the 1868 discovery of a Sator square found in ROTAS-form scratched on a plaster wall in the Roman settlement of [[Corinium Dobunnorum|Corinium ]] at [[Cirencester]] to be of Roman origin; however, his assertion was discounted at the time by most academics who considered the square to be an "early medieval charm".<ref name=MRS>{{cite journal | journal=[[Cryptologia]] | author-link=Rose Mary Sheldon | first=Rose Mary | last=Sheldon | url=https://indexarticles.com/reference/cryptologia/sator-rebus-an-unsolved-cryptogram-the/ | title=The Sator Rebus: An unsolved cryptogram? | pages=233–287 | doi=10.1080/0161-110391891919 | date=2003 | volume=27 | issue=3 | s2cid=218542154 | access-date=10 September 2022| url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=Hemer/>

Haverfield was ultimately proved right by the 1931-32 excavations at [[Dura-Europos]] in [[Syria]] that uncovered three separate Sator square inscriptions, all in ROTAS-form, on the interior walls of a Roman military office (and a fourth a year later) that were dated from circa AD 200.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=Conimbriga/> 

Five years later in 1936, Italian archaeologist {{ill|Matteo Della Corte|it}} discovered a Sator square, also in ROTAS-form, inscribed on a column in the {{ill|Palestra Grande|it}} (the gymnasium) near the [[Amphitheatre of Pompeii]] (''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL IV]] 8623'').<ref>{{cite web | website=[[Pompeii|Parco Archeologico di Pompei]] | url=https://pompeiicommitment.org/il-quadrato-del-sator-dalla-palestra-grande/ | title=The Sator Square from the Palaestra Grande | date=2023}}</ref> This discovery led  Della Corte to reexamine a fragment of a square, again also in ROTAS-form, that he had made in 1925 at the house of Publius Paquius Proculus, also at Pompeii (''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL IV]] 8123''). The square at the house of Publius Paquius Proculus was dated between AD 50 and AD 79 (based on the decorative style of the interior), and the palestra square find was dated pre-AD 62 (and therefore the [[AD 62 Pompeii earthquake|earthquake of AD 62]]),{{efn|name=PS|Work by Italian archaeologist [[Amedeo Maiuri]] in 1938 showed that [[Graffito (archaeology)|graffito]] on the Pompeii palestra square column associated with the Rotas-square, were linked to graffito that would have pre-dated the [[AD 62 Pompeii earthquake|earthquake of AD 62]]; this was later confirmed by German classical philologist {{ill|Friedrich Focke|de}} in 1948 based on an analysis of the [[stucco]] plastering of the specific palestra square columns.<ref name=Hemer/><ref name=Conimbriga/>}} making it the oldest known Sator square discovery to date.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=":0"/>