VR-3

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Inscription
Transliteration:	φaniniuφikuremieshiraφasuvakhikvelisanes
Original script:
Object:	VR-3 spit (bronze)
Position:	side"side" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property.
Script:	North Italic script (Magrè alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	0.7 cm
Number of letters:	40
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	embossed
Current condition:	complete, damaged
Date of inscription:	uncertain [from object]
Date derived from:	unknown [from object]
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:
Alternative sigla:	PID 247 LIR VR-3 MLR 290
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 171 f.

Commentary

First published in Rossi 1656: 404. Autopsied by TIR on 19^th November 2015.

Images in Rossi 1656: 407 (drawing = repr. in 1672 = Mayr 1961: 213), Maffei 1739(?): tav. II,2 (drawing = Mommsen 1853: Taf. II,19 = CII: Tab. II,14 = AIF I: Taf. II,38 = Marstrander 1927: 24 (fig. 21)), Salzani 1984: 792 (drawing = Schumacher 2004: Taf. 2,4 = LIR), MLR (photos).

Length 21.7 cm. The letters are well distinguishable, the reading is unambiguous – including the twentieth letter (Rho) through which the spit is broken. Letter 37 (Alpha) is narrow and has a straight first hasta; it may be assumed that the writer made a mistake and had to squeeze in the second hasta and bar belatedly. Although Rossi's original drawing is clear and correct in every detail, Maffei introduced certain changes (letters 20, 21 and 37) which led to incorrect readings by the scholars who referred to his work and drawing. (A concise overview of the stemma of readings is given by Whatmough.) The correct reading was re-established on examination after Marinetti's relocation of the object (see Salzani's drawing).

The alphabet used in the inscription is Venetoid, with Lambda and Upsilon . The shape of Mu (with three bars) is typically Raetic, but the orientation of Alpha and Sigma is not. The most notable character is alleged Phi, which appears thrice, always in the form of a hasta with a perfectly round circle on top, and additionally a smaller dot in the centre. While Maffei, Mommsen and Fabretti read a dental, Pauli established the reading as Phi. Marstrander reverted to a dental, interpreting the letter as a variant of Φ5 s. Marinetti, after an extensive discussion, decided upon Phi. Curiously, the inscription lacks Pi and any character for a dental stop. See Φ.

Concerning segmentation and interpretation, the first half of the inscription contains some usable material. upiku can certainly be isolated, but is not accompanied by a pertinentive. φanini is tentatively identified with the well-attested, but obscure pani(u)n; final i must be expected to be an inflectional ending – cp. aχvil, which also sometimes appears with -i? remies suggests itself as a genitive of the well-attested individual name remi, with a variant auslaut -ie (see The Raetic language).

Further references: Maffei 1739(?): 302 f., Mommsen 1853: 210 (no. 19), CII 14, AIF I: 19 (no. 38), Cipolla 1884: 9 ff., Pauli 1888: 146 f., Pellegrini 1918: 192 (note 2), Marstrander 1927: 24, PID: 549 (Commentary), Mayr 1961, Marinetti 1987, Rix 1998: 33 ff.

Bibliography

AIF I	Carl Pauli, Altitalische Forschungen. Band 1: Die Inschriften nordetruskischen Alphabets, Leipzig: 1885.
CII	Ariodante Fabretti, Corpus inscriptionum italicarum, Torino: 1867. (2 volumes)
Cipolla 1884	Carlo Cipolla, "III. Lavagno", Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità (1884), 4–13.
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)
Marinetti 1987	Anna Marinetti, "L'iscrizione retica (PID 247) da Ca' dei Cavri (Verona)", in: Alessandra Aspes (Ed.), Prima della Storia. Inediti di 10 anni di ricerche a Verona, Verona: Museo Civico di Storia Naturale 1987, 131–140.
Marstrander 1927	Carl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander, "Remarques sur les inscriptions des casques en bronze de Negau et de Watsch", Avhandlinger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo. Hist.-filos. klasse 1926/2 (1927), 1–26.