BZ-10.2

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Inscription
Transliteration:	ṭṇ
Original script:
Object:	BZ-10 slab (porphyry) (Inscriptions: BZ-10.1, BZ-10.2)
Position:	back, 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.
Script:	North Italic script (Sanzeno alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	9 cm
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	damaged
Archaeological culture:	Iron Age [from object]
Date of inscription:	5th–2nd centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	PID 196 (b) IR 4 (b) LIR BZ-13 (b) MLR 289 (b)
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 181, 341 f.

Images

Inscription BZ-10.2.

Object BZ-10 slab with inscriptions BZ-10.1 (frontside) and BZ-10.2 (backside).

Commentary

First published in CII 24. Autopsied by TIR in November 2013.

Pictures in Sulzer 1855: Tav. IX (drawing), Schneller 1866: Taf. II, Fig. 3, CII: tab. II (drawing = AIF I: Taf. II,36 A), Giovanelli 1876: Taf. II, No. 4 (drawing), Oberziner 1883b: Tav. XX, 3 (drawing), IR: Tav. XXXVI c (photo), LIR (drawing), Marchesini 2014b: 202 and Taf. 2b (photos), Taf. 4 (reproduction of the drawing made by head of excavation Ciprian Pescosta in 1854/55), MLR (photo).

Hardly legible due to weathering and the fact that this side of the slab has not been smoothed (Marchesini 2014b: 208). Autopsy was impeded by the fact that the slab is currently on exhibition, fixedly attatched to the ground with its back to a wall, but a thorough examination of both sides of the slab was recently conducted by Simona Marchesini. The photograph provided in the publication confirms both that no further traces can be made out in the vicinity, and our own suspicions concerning the unequalness of the traces as seen on Mancini's photo – some deep and broad, some more fine and shallow and white in colour. We agree with Marchesini on the latter being hardly old, and of no relevance to the reading. The eroded lines are best interpreted as the letters , as seen by Marchesini (p. 208). They might be marks of some description (Marchesini 2014b: 204), or possibly correspond to the beginning of the inscription proper on the other side of the slab – the writer may have commenced the inscription, then decided that he hadn't planned the layout correctly (less probable, seeing as the surface is not smoothed), or tried his instrument in an inconspicuous spot before starting on the text.

Further references: Sulzer 1855: 307, Weber 1861: 36–37, Schneller 1866: 198 f., Giovanelli 1876: 97, Pichler 1880: 41 (no. 5), Oberziner 1883b: 150, AIF I 36, Battisti 1944: 227 f., Pisani 1953 321, Marchesini 2014b.

Bibliography

AIF I	Carl Pauli, Altitalische Forschungen. Band 1: Die Inschriften nordetruskischen Alphabets, Leipzig: 1885.
Battisti 1944	Carlo Battisti, "Osservazioni sulla lingua delle iscrizioni nell'alfabeto etrusco settentrionale di Bolzano", Studi Etruschi 18 (1944), 199–236.
CII	Ariodante Fabretti, Corpus inscriptionum italicarum, Torino: 1867. (2 volumes)
Giovanelli 1876	Benedetto Giovanelli, "Die Rhätisch-Etruskischen Alterthümer entdeckt bei Matrei im Mai 1845", Zeitschrift des Ferdinandeums für Tirol und Vorarlberg 3/20 (1876), 45–99.
IR	Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.
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)
Marchesini 2014b	Simona Marchesini, "Über die rätische Inschrift aus Pfatten/Vadena im Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck", Wissenschaftliches Jahrbuch der Tiroler Landesmuseen 7 (2014), 202–217.