SL-2.3

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Inscription
Transliteration:	þuφniφanuaφi
Original script:	Þ6 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
Orientation:	180°
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
Date of inscription:	450–100 BC
Date derived from:	archaeology"archaeology" is not in the list (palaeography, typology, archaeological context, cultural context, natural science, linguistics, historiography, unknown) of allowed values for the "date derivation" property.
Language:	unknown
Meaning:
Alternative sigla:	PID 1* bis (b)
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 330

Images

Inscription SL-2.3.

Commentary

First published in Mommsen 1853: 208, no. 12.

Further references: Giovanelli 1845: 43 ff., Von Sacken & Kenner 1866: 292, no. 1089, CII: no. 59, Corssen 1874: 949 (note), Pichler 1880: 43 f., AIF I: 36, no. 99b, Olsen 1903: 23 ff., Marstrander 1925: passim, Marstrander 1927: 6 f. (A 3), Kretschmer 1943: 187 f., Prosdocimi & Scardigli 1976: 225 ff., Prosdocimi 1978c: 318, Prosdocimi 1978b: 387, Egg 1986: 227 (Nr. 324), Prosdocimi 1988: 321, Nedoma 1995: 19 f. (Ic), Markey 2001: 113 f., Urban & Nedoma 2002: 57.

Pictures in Giovanelli 1845: tav. II (drawing = Giovanelli 1876: Taf. II, No. 1), Mommsen 1853: Taf. I, 12B (drawing; see Mommsen 1853: 208 f.) (= CII: Tav. VI, b = AIF I: Taf VI, 99 A = Marstrander 1925: 38), Sulzer 1855: Taf. VII, Von Sacken & Kenner 1866: Taf. Nr. 2 (drawing), Pichler 1880: [?] (= AIF I: Taf. VI, 99 B), Marstrander 1927: 7, Fig. 3 and 4 (drawings) and Pl. I (photo), Reinecke 1942: 133, a (drawing = Markey 2001: 105, Fig. 6) and Taf. 11a (photo), Egg 1986: 226, Abb. 183 (drawing) (= Schumacher 2004: Taf. 16, 3) and Nedoma 1995: Abb. 6 and 7 (photos).

Embossed with a pointed tool on the chamfer, upside-down when the helmet is worn. 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.

The inscription as such is in good condition. The problem lies in the identification of the four characters consisting of a vertical hasta with a circle (or circloid) on top (letters 1, 3, 6 and 13) as either Phi or the Raetic special character Þ in its form Þ5 s. The first character features two circles. While the bottom circle is as lopsided as the circles in the other letters, 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. (Compare Marstrander's detailed description p. 7. The view that the first character is not a letter but some sort of symbol, decoration or punctuation mark, as held by Pauli and, following him, Olsen 1903: 25, is obsolete.) Letter 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 letter 6 is considerably smaller, though still bigger than in letter 1; letter 13 features a circle almost as small as those of letter 1, with one indentation belonging to the hasta sitting on top of it.

It is theoretically possible that all four characters are intended as the same letter – Mommsen read þ̣uþniþanuaþi. While both the characters 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 characters in SL-2.3 could be identified as , because in all cases the hasta continues into or through the circle, in letter 13 even beyond it. Þ5 s, being a variant of Þ4 s, should have a circle above the hasta. Þ6 s 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 of letter 1 are much smaller, and the appearance of the top circle seems peculiar. We are inclined to think that Þ6 s 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 realising 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.

The reading with one anlauting dental and three labials is the one usually favoured, because it is the basis for Marstrander's interpretation of the inscription as a Celtic personal name (see þuφniφanuaφi).

As concerns the alphabet used, the first letter associates the inscription with the Raetic sphere. In Marstrander's reading, however, Þ6 s stands for d instead of þ, which has lead to the assumption that it is a variant of Zeta, Zeta being used to write d in some Venetic alphabets (see Script). Compare Marstrander 1927: 20 ff. (as opposed to Marstrander 1925: 53 with Fn. 2), Prosdocimi in Prosdocimi & Scardigli 1976: 225 ff., Prosdocimi 1978c: 318, Prosdocimi 1978b: 387, Prosdocimi 1986: 32 ff., Prosdocimi 1988: 321. Whatmough (p. 611 f.) and Kretschmer 1943: 186 f. read Þ6 s as as an archaic variant of Etruscan f. See Þ for a discussion of the various shapes of the Raetic special character. with its twig sloping against the writing direction, as usual in Raetic inscriptions, is also found in the easternmost Venetic inscriptions from the Isonzo-area (Is 1–3 in Pellegrini & Prosdocimi 1967, *Is 4–6 in Eichner & Nedoma 2009); the same goes for , which does not occur in the Isonzo-inscriptions, but is elsewhere found regularly instead of the inverted characteristic for Venetic and the Raetic South. SL-2.3 does not feature Venetic syllabic punctuation, but this may be due to its potentially early dating and/or to geographical remoteness (see Nedoma 1995: 25, Fn. 36). Compare also Nedoma 1995: 25.

For the dating of the inscriptions on SL-2 helmet see Nedoma 1995: 16–18 and 20–22. Depending on which type(s) of inscriptions we are faced with, they may have been applied any time after the manufacture of the helmet in the second half of the 5^th century by its owners, or as votive inscriptions on the occasion of the deposit around 100 BC.

Bibliography

Marstrander 1925	Carl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander, "Les inscriptions des casques de Negau, Styrie", Symbolae Osloensis 3 (1925), 37–64.