MA-23

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Inscription
Transliteration:	usθiþu / zezeve
Original script:
Object:	MA-23 antler (antler)
Position:	front
Script:	North Italic script (Magrè alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	1.31.3 cm <br /> – 1.9 cm
Number of letters:	12
Number of lines:	2
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	complete
Date of inscription:	3rd–2nd centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	PID 243 IR 11 LIR MA-18 MLR 49
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 166

Commentary

First published in Pellegrini 1918: 188 (no. 19).

Images in Pellegrini 1918: 188, fig. 26 (drawing), IR photo tav. XL c = LIR), LIR (drawings), MLR (photos).

Inscribed in two lines, both starting at the broader end of the antler piece. Well legible. In line 1 (length 5 cm), second Upsilon is inverted in opposition to the first instance – possibly another case of the object being turned during the application of the inscription (cp. MA-13 and MA-17. Line 2 (length 7.2 cm) is somewhat dubious. Pellegrini read zezeve, which is indeed the best interpretation based on the character shapes. Epsilon is clear is all three cases, but the bars in the first two are unusually prolonged. The first supposed Zeta has a straight hasta with two long oblique bars. The second one's hasta is oblique, making it closer in form to Este-style . Supposed Digamma has a straight hasta again, and the bars do not cross the hasta more than in the Epsilons. Still the sequence is suspicious, not least for the occurrence of Zeta, especially in combination with the special character in line 1. Para-script cannot be excluded (cp. FI-1 kakaka). For usθiþu cp. the suffix -þu in MA-2 and MA-5.

On the back, an arrangement of lines more extensive (8 cm) than the marks found on almost all other antler votives from Magrè.

Further references: Kretschmer 1932, Kretschmer 1943: 179, 191, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 237.

Bibliography

IR	Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.
Kretschmer 1932	Paul Kretschmer, "Die Etruskerfrage und die Inschriften von Magrè", in: Axel Nelson (Ed.), Symbolae philologicae O.A. Danielsson Octogenario dicatae, Uppsala: 1932, 134–142.
Kretschmer 1943	Paul Kretschmer, "Die vorgriechischen Sprach- und Volksschichten (Fortsetzung)", Glotta 30 (1943), 84–218.
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)