BZ-3

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Inscription
Transliteration:	paniun : laśanuale / upiku : perunies : sχaispala
Original script:
Object:	BZ-3 simpulum (bronze)
Position:	left-hand side"left-hand side" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property., 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., handle
Script:	North Italic script (Sanzeno alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	0.6 cm
Number of letters:	37
Number of characters:	40
Number of lines:	2
Craftsmanship:	embossed
Current condition:	complete, restored
Date of inscription:	5th–4th centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	typology [from object]
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	'(?) to/by/for (?) Laśanu X-ed of Perunie (?)' (?)
Alternative sigla:	PID 191 LIR BZ-2 MLR 272
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 179, 341

Commentary

First published in Meyer 1901, but mentioned already by Von Wieser 1889. Autopsied by TIR in November 2013.

Pictures in Meyer 1901: 2 (drawing = Mayr 1960e: Abb. 1) and LIR (drawings).

Length 8.3 cm / 9.5 cm respectively. The in laśanuale has two bars; the leftmost one may be a failed attempt at either the bar of (not close enough to the hasta) or unintentional – a similar small stroke, without white inlay, precedes the first stroke of in upiku at the top of the line. A reading , as suggested by Whatmough and Battisti 1944: 223, is unlikely, as is upright. Cp. VN-10. No white inlay in the last punctuation mark.

It is very probable that the two lines form one inscription, though it is not clear where the text starts. Assuming that paniun, though neither a typical Raetic individual name ending in a vowel nor featuring a pertinentive suffix, is a first name complementing the exemplary patronymic laśanuale in the pertinentive case, we may have the name of the donor/giver/receiver/manufacturer on one side of the handle. On the other side, upiku is followed by possibly an individual name in the genitive perunies. sχaispala remains lexically and grammatically opaque; a separation into sχais and pala, as performed by Pisani 1935: 94, is not likely, seeing how diligently separators are used elsewhere in the inscription.

Further references: NRIE 91, Cortsen 1925: 70, Battisti 1936: 500, Franz 1959: 228 (sub 2), Mayr 1960e, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 227.

Bibliography

Battisti 1936	Carlo Battisti, "Rivista Linguistica Etrusca 1932-35 (Prima puntata)", Studi Etruschi 10 (1936), 488–517.
Battisti 1944	Carlo Battisti, "Osservazioni sulla lingua delle iscrizioni nell'alfabeto etrusco settentrionale di Bolzano", Studi Etruschi 18 (1944), 199–236.
Cortsen 1925	Søren Peter Cortsen, Die etruskischen Standes- und Beamtentitel, durch die Inschriften beleuchtet, København: 1925.
Franz 1959	Leonhard Franz, "Rätische Inschriften im Innsbrucker Landesmuseum", Der Schlern 33 (1959), 228–229.
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)