MA-8

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Inscription
Transliteration:	reiθemuiuþinaχe
Original script:
Object:	MA-8 antler (antler)
Position:	front
Script:	North Italic script (Magrè alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	0.60.6 cm <br /> – 1.9 cm
Number of letters:	15
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	complete
Date of inscription:	3rd–2nd centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	PID 227 LIR MA-5 MLR 59 a
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 163

Commentary

First published in Pellegrini 1918: 183 (no. 10).

Images in Pellegrini 1918: 184, fig. 19 (drawing), LIR (photo and drawings), MLR (photos).

Length 8.2 cm; well legible. The inscriptions starts at the narrower end of the antler piece, at about 1 cm from the drilled hole. The first four letters are inscribed in the centre, then the line drifts upward to follow the upper edge. Short vertical scratches after the first Iota and the first Upsilon (the latter read as a punctuation mark by Whatmough) are slighter than the letters and unintentional. For inverted Epsilon cp. MA-1, MA-6, MA-9 and MA-11.

The inscription contains the verbal form þinaχe, written in last position as in all other cases in Magrè. reiθe might qualify as a Raetic individual name in -e. muiu is obscure – cp. maybe SZ-3 with an individual name + maiu. Rix 1998: 41 suggests a translation 'Reiθe dedicated [this] to Muiu' or 'Reiθe dedicated me'. The latter is unlikely, as this would be the only case of a "speaking" inscription in Raetic; muiu is only vaguely reminiscent of Etruscan accusatives of the 1^st person pronoun by virtue of initial m.

On the back, at 3 cm from the broader end, an arrangement of lines (length 2.3 cm), as is the case in all the antler votives from Magrè.. It is very deeply incised with multiple scratches and also visible in the middle.

Further references: Kretschmer 1932: 139, NRIE 59, Battisti 1936: 497 f., Vetter 1943: 80, Kretschmer 1943: 177 f., Vetter 1954: 73 f., Pisani 1964: 318 (no. 134e), Pellegrini & Prosdocimi 1967: 158, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 237, Morandi 1982: 199 (no. 73).

Bibliography

Battisti 1936	Carlo Battisti, "Rivista Linguistica Etrusca 1932-35 (Prima puntata)", Studi Etruschi 10 (1936), 488–517.
Kretschmer 1932	Paul Kretschmer, "Die Etruskerfrage und die Inschriften von Magrè", in: Axel Nelson (Ed.), Symbolae philologicae O.A. Danielsson Octogenario dicatae, Uppsala: 1932, 134–142.
Kretschmer 1943	Paul Kretschmer, "Die vorgriechischen Sprach- und Volksschichten (Fortsetzung)", Glotta 30 (1943), 84–218.
Kretschmer 1949	Paul Kretschmer, "Wem waren die raetischen Täfelchen von Magrè geweiht?", Die Sprache 1 (1949), 30–36.
LIR	Alberto Mancini, Le Iscrizioni Retiche [= Quaderni del dipartimento di linguistica, Università degli studi di Firenze Studi 8–9], Padova: Unipress 2009–10. (2 volumes)