Sampi

Sampi is the conventional name given in modern scholarship to an archaic Greek sign that appears in several earlyGreek alphabets as well as to a numeral sign used in the ancient Greek system of numerals. As a letter, sampi is known from epigraphic evidence in a variety of local alphabets, where it functioned as a sibilant sign. The exact phonetic value of this sign varied by dialect and period, and the form of the glyph differed regionally. By the classical period, the standard Greek letter sigma had become the sole representation of the sibilant, and sampi fell out of use as a letter.

In addition to its proposed role as a letter, sampi also served as a numeric sign in the Greek numeral system. It denoted the value 900, placing it among the late, archaic symbols used for numerals alongside koppa (90) and stigma (6) in some stages of the system. The numeral form is typically represented by distinct glyphs such as the capital Ϡ and the lowercase ϡ, with several regional variants attested in inscriptions and manuscripts. The use of sampi as a numeral sign declined in antiquity, and it is primarily encountered today in studies of archaic Greek writing and numeration.

Etymology and naming: the term sampi is a scholarly designation rather than a name found in ancient texts for a single, unified symbol. Its origins and development are tied to the diverse epichoric alphabets of ancient Greece and to the later standardization of the Greek script.