VR-11

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Inscription
Transliteration:	]śt·luχ·zn·χe
Original script:	[
Object:	VR-11 bronze (bronze)
Position:	front
Script:	North Italic script (Magrè alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	1.71.7 cm <br /> – 2.2 cm
Number of letters:	9
Number of characters:	12
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	embossed
Current condition:	fragmentary
Date of inscription:	end of the 2nd–beginning of the 1st centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	MLR 120 TM 653641

Commentary

First published in Marinetti 2003: 112 (no. 2). Autopsied by TIR on 17^th November 2015.

Image in Marinetti 2003: fig. 1.2 (drawing) (= Marinetti 2004: fig. 2.2), MLR (photo).

Length of the remains 5.4 cm. The characters, all touching the upper edge, are neatly executed and unambiguous. Between the vertical breaking edge on the right and the first preserved letter San, an angle is probably just a trick of the eye. The lines are not straight and not deeply embossed like the others – they appear to be traces of corrosion.

The sequence śt·luχ, probably incomplete in the beginning, is obscure. The final part of the inscription zn·χe represents the verbal form þinaχe, though the spelling is unusual. The use of Zeta for writing the Raetic dental affricate is conspicuous, in that it seems to bypass the Venetic use of the letter. See Script and cp. VR-2 and VR-4. For the shortening of þinaχe by substituting vowels with puncts cp. VR-10. In contrast to this latter example, where syllabic punctuation can be argued to be correctly employed, the present case is less clear: All three puncts in the inscription are per se correct, but San and Zeta ought to be punctuated as well. Generally, the scarcity of vowels is conspicuous; the sequence before þinaχe may well be shortened as well.

On the back of the object, in the centre, a symbol in the shape of the letter .

Bibliography

Marinetti 2003	Anna Marinetti, "Iscrizioni retiche di San Giorgio Valpolicella (VR)", Quaderni di Archeologia del Veneto (QdAV) IXX (2003), 111–117.
Marinetti 2004	Anna Marinetti, "Nuove iscrizioni retiche dall'area veronese", Studi Etruschi 70 (2004), 408–420.