AS-17.1

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Inscription
Transliteration:	esipa?ịaṛeθuluva
Original script:	?
Object:	AS-17 potsherd (pottery) (Inscriptions: AS-17.1, AS-17.2)
Position:	shoulder
Orientation:	0°
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	2.92.9 cm <br /> – 3.93.9 cm <br />
Number of letters:	15
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	incised
Current condition:	complete, damaged
Date of inscription:	end of the 4th-3rd centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	MLR 100 a

Commentary

First published in MLR. Autopsied by TIR on 14^th October 2015.

Image in MLR (photos).

Inscribed on the side of the beaker, just above the bottom; length about 18.3 cm. The upper part of the beaker is gone, the break runs around right along the upper tips of the letters. The scratches are fairly well distingushable despite considerable surface damage, but the inscription is very messy. The first five letters seem clear, including the very faint upper bar of initial . Of the next letter, the top is damaged; two verticals, the first one shorter, may or may not belong to the same letter. Marchesini's reading pi appears to include a very faint third line between them, but this would mean disagreeing with clear before it. Cp. maybe pasia in AS-15.1? The next letter is small and inscribed in the upper part of the line, apparently to avoid the huge and deeply incised dextroverse . Both the wrong orientation and the fact that appears to have been written after it suggests that does not belong to the inscription, but is a mark applied independently (and previously). However, it is hard to decide which other elements might belong to this supposed mark. To the left of , a St. Andrew's cross of equivalent size is written with one straight hasta, one of its tips touching the hasta of . Beneath and between these two characters, a smaller is inserted. After , the inscription proceeds with unambiguous letters. Note that Lambda appears in its Sanzeno-form with the bar in the bottom , whereas Pi and Upsilon have Venetoid Magrè-shape.

The sequence is obscure. AS-17.2 starts with the same sequence esipa. The final part of the inscription may be a genitive in -a, if v is a reflex of hiatus avoidance, but cp. AS-17.2 also ending in -va, where that possibility is excluded.