MA-9

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Inscription
Transliteration:	pitalelemaisþinake
Original script:
Object:	MA-9 antler (antler)
Position:	front
Script:	North Italic script (Magrè alphabet)
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Letter height:	11 cm <br /> – 1.7 cm
Number of letters:	18
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:	'Pitale ? dedicated'
Alternative sigla:	PID 228 LIR MA-6 MLR 64
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 163

Commentary

First published in Pellegrini 1918: 184 (no. 11).

Images in Pellegrini 1918: 184, fig. 18 (drawing), LIR (photo and drawings), MLR (photos).

Length about 9.5 cm. With deeply incised letters on a well preserved object, the inscription is in excellent condition and very well legible. It starts at the broad end of the antler piece, running along the upper edge. The drilled hole damages the lower tip of , which indicates that it was made after the inscription was applied. Final Epsilon, in opposition to the first two instances, is inverted (cp. MA-1, MA-6, MA-8 and MA-11.

The inscription contains the verbal form þinaχe, written in last position as in all other cases in Magrè. pitale might qualify as a Raetic individual name in -e. lemais is obscure – a benefactive genitive? Rix 1998: 41 translates 'Pitale dedicated [this] to Lemai'.

On the back, at about 2.5 cm from the broader end, an arrangement of lines, as is the case in all the antler votives from Magrè.

Further references: Kretschmer 1932, NRIE 58, Battisti 1936: 497 f., Vetter 1943: 80, Kretschmer 1943: 175, 189, 191, Vetter 1954: 73 f., Mayr 1956b: 245, Pisani 1964: 318 (no. 134f), Pellegrini & Prosdocimi 1967: 158, Tibiletti Bruno 1967: 1 ff., Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 236 f., 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.
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)
Mayr 1956b	Karl M. Mayr, "Hirschhornvotive aus den rätischen Bergen", Der Schlern 30 (1956), 245–246.