ST-8

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Inscription
Transliteration:	arisae·ki
Original script:
Object:	ST rock (stone) (Inscriptions: ST-1, ST-2, ST-3, ST-4, ST-5, ST-6, ST-7, ST-8, ST-9)
Position:	left
Orientation:	90°
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Letter height:	3.53.5 cm <br /> – 7 cm
Number of letters:	8
Number of characters:	9
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	damaged
Date of inscription:
Date derived from:
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	IR 113 LIR STN-8 TM 218565
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 193, 232, 355

Images

Inscriptions ST-5, ST-8.

Commentary

First published in Mayr 1962c: 287.

Images in Mayr 1962c: 287 (drawing), 288 (photo), Joppich 1971: 43 (drawings), Schumacher 1998b: Abb. 1 (drawing = Schumacher 2004: Taf. 20) and Zavaroni 2004: Fig. 10 (photo/drawing). Numerous casts have been made of the Steinberg inscriptions; positives of the most recent one, made by the Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte Innsbruck in 1993, can be seen at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum and the Archäologische Staatssammlung München. Drawings of the arrangement of the inscriptions in Vetter 1957: 386, Prosdocimi 1971: 30, Zavaroni 2004: Fig. 15 and Schumacher 2002: 1276 (= Schumacher 2004: Taf 8,1).

Length about 24 cm, running almost vertically upwards about halfway between ST-5 and ST-1. is disrupted by more recent M-shaped scratches (maybe initials); the other letters are well legible. Mayr's reading, based on a photograph by the finder Georg Innerebner>, is negligible. Following Vetter 1957, who had speculated that a votive bronze plaque had been affixed in the rectangular space between ST-1, ST-4 and ST-1 (see ST rock), Prosdocimi 1971: 46, who had not noticed the inscription during his visit, was led to suggest that ST-8 in Joppich's reading isae.ki (p. 43) meant something along the lines of 'here the sacred image'. The reluctance to inscribe this central area, however, may simply be due to uneven surface (Sydow 1989: 70 f.) or a lack of easily inscribable weathering crust (cf. Mandl 2011: 28, 48, 53), which might also account for the comparatively small letters of ST-8.

No interpretation of the sequence suggests itself, but cf. ·ki in VN-14 and Etruscan ki 'three' on the Feltre slab A. Schumacher 1998b: 172 prefers a separation between a and e, because the spelling ae is not documented anywhere else in Raetic. The function of the punct is unclear. In Schumacher's segmentation, it would mark the anlauting vowel of eki in line with Venetic syllabic punctuation, but initial alpha is not punctuated. See Script for a discussion of punctuation in Raetic inscriptions.

Further references: Pisani 1964: 324 (no. 137 bis), Prosdocimi 1971: 38, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 232, Schumacher 1998b: 170–173, Zavaroni 2004: 59 f., Schumacher & Salomon 2019: 173.

Bibliography

IR	Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.
Joppich 1971	Julius Joppich, "Anhang. Tonabdruck und Korrektur zur Lesung der Felsinschriften nach Emil Vetter", in: Wolfgang Meid, Hermann M. Ölberg, Hans Schmeja (Eds), Studien zur Namenkunde und Sprachgeographie. Festschrift für Karl Finsterwalder zum 70. Geburtstag [= Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft 16], Innsbruck: 1971, 41–44.
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)
Mandl 2011	Franz Mandl, Felsbilder. Österreich – Bayern: Nördliche Kalkalpen [= Anisa – Verein für alpine Forschung 4], Haus im Ennstal: 2011.