SL-2.3

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Inscription
Transliteration:	þuφniφanuanaφi
Original script:	Þ5 s
Variant Reading:	þuφniþanuanaþi
Object:	SL-2 helmet (bronze) (Inscriptions: SL-2.1, SL-2.2, SL-2.4)
Position:	right-hand side"right-hand side" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property., front area"front area" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property., rim
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Number of letters:	14
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	embossed
Current condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	La Tène A [from object]
Date of inscription:	second half of 5th–beginning of 4th century BC [from object]
Date derived from:	typology [from object]
Language:	unknown
Meaning:
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 330

Images

Inscription SL-2.3.

Commentary

First published in ???.
Further references: Nedoma 1995: 16–20, Egg 1986: 227 (Nr 324), Urban & Nedoma 2002: ???.
Pictures in Nedoma 1995: Abb. 1–8 (photo) and Egg 1986: Abb. 138 (drawing).
Embossed with a pointed tool. The inscription is upside-down when the helmet is worn.
The inscription is in good condition. A white inlay was added wann, as can be seen on the photos, but must have been cleaned away since. Remains can still be seen in some of the deeper indentations. All letters are well legible.
The problem lies in the identification of the four signs consisting of a vertical hasta with a circle (or circloid) on top (letters 1, 3, 6 and 13). The first sign features two such circles. While the bottom circle is as lopsided as the circles in the other signs, the top one made of shallower and not easily visible indentations is perfectly circular. It seems to have been executed with much care. Sign 3 does not much resemble 1: The circle is irregular and distinctly bigger, taking up more than half of the length of the hasta. The circle on top of sign 6 is considerably smaller, though still bigger than in sign 1; sign 13 features a circle almost as small as sign 1, with one indentation belonging to the hasta sitting on top of it.
It is theoretically possible that all four signs are intended as the same letter. While both the signs for þ and φ can appear as hastae with circles in the upper area, in the North Italic alphabets is a variant of , with the circle sitting, in different sizes, anywhere on the central or upper part of the hasta. In this light, all the respective signs in SL-2.3 could be identified as , because in all cases the hasta continues through the circle, in sign 13 even beyond it. Þ5 s, being a variant of Þ4 s, should have a circle above the hasta. Sign 1 featuring two circles might be explained by a mistake of the writer, who may have started applying the inscription the other way round. (See ??? for a discussion of how inscriptions were applied on helmets.) However, the circles in 1 are much smaller, so small in fact that the continuation of the hasta into the circles amounts to one indentation each. We are inclined to think that sign 1 is to be read þ. The "dumbbell-shape" may be an otherwise unattested variant of Þ5 s, or due to an effort of the writer to distinguish the letter more clearly from the three s – possibly as an afterthought when realizing that his circles had become continually smaller. The reading of letters 6 and 13 as þ we consider unlikely.

Bibliography

Marstrander 1925	Carl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander, "Les inscriptions des casques de Negau, Styrie", Symbolae Osloensis 3 (1925), 37–64.