SL-2.3

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Inscription
Transliteration:	þuφniφanuanaφi
Original script:	Þ5 s
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., lower area"lower area" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property., outside
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	0.70.7 cm <br /> – 1.0 cm
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 Mommsen 1853, Taf. I, 12a?.
Further references: Egg 1986: 227 (Nr 324), Nedoma 1995: 19 f. (Ic), Urban & Nedoma 2002: ???.
Pictures in Egg 1986: Abb. 138 (drawing) (= Schumacher 2004: Taf. 16, 3) and Nedoma 1995: Abb. 6 and 7 (photos) .
Length 6.5 cm. Embossed with a pointed tool on the Kehle. The inscription is upside-down when the helmet is worn.
The inscription is in good condition. A white inlay was added sometime before 1927, possibly for photos made for Marstrander 1927, 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 is perfectly circular and made of more, but shallower and not easily visible indentations arranged around a single particularly deep one. 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 those of 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 into or 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. (Compare the question of how SL-2.5 was applied.) However, the circles in 1 are much smaller, and the appearance of the top circle seems peculiar. 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. Even the upper circle may be an amendation, if the deep indentation at its centre was intended as the top element of Þ4 s. 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.