SL-2.4

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Inscription
Transliteration:	kerut
Original script:
Variant Reading:	karut purak lurak
Object:	SL-2 helmet (bronze) (Inscriptions: SL-2.1, SL-2.2, SL-2.4)
Position:	front, 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:	0°
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	ambiguous
Letter height:	1.81.8 cm <br /> – 2.0 cm
Number of letters:	5
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	complete
Date of inscription:	450–100 BC
Date derived from:	typology
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 330 f.

Images

Inscription SL-2.4.

Commentary

First published in Marstrander 1927: 8 f., though according to him seen and drawn in the 19th c. by Franz von Lipperheide. Autopsied by TIR on 10^th January 2014.

Images in Marstrander 1927: Fig. 5 (drawing), Reinecke 1942: 133, b (drawing = Markey 2001: 105, Fig. 6) and Taf. 11c (photo), Egger 1959: 88, Abb. 3 (drawing), Klingenberg 1973: 140, Fig. 18 (drawing), Egg 1986: Abb. 183 (drawing) and Nedoma 1995: 18, Fig. 3 (drawing) (= Schumacher 2004: Taf. 16, 4) and Abb. 8 (photo).

Length about 6.5 cm. Written on the brim under SL-2.2 with scratches faint but fairly well visible. A white inlay was added sometime before 1927, possibly for photos made for Marstrander 1927, but must have been cleaned away since.

The letter is written with a long upper bar. Those strokes reaching the bottom of the line are scratched from there upwards, probably because the upturned rim presented an impediment.

The writing direction is ambiguous: Either (in a sinistroverse reading) or (in a dextroverse reading) is turned the wrong way. The second letter from the right consists of two oblique hastae (the left one slightly straighter) with two bars slanting down from the right hasta. It can be read , tipped forward with its bars almost reaching the bottom of the line (known from Etruscan inscriptions, see Wallace 2008: 19), or as erroneously supplied with a superfluous stroke. In the first case, the letter supports a sinistroverse reading, while the , though not as significant statistically, is dextroverse. The leftmost character, if read sinistroverse, is Sanzeno Tau; if read dextroverse, it is Sanzeno or Lugano Pi (or indeed Magrè Lambda). The dextroverse readings purak or lurak (Egg 1986: 227 (Nr 324)) cannot therefore be ruled out. With regard to , Marstrander 1927: 9 observed that "[d]ans l'alphabet proprement étrusque p et k ont souvent un sens contraire à celui des autres lettres".

Egger 1959: 88 f. explained dextroverse , set apart from the rest of the inscription by a slightly broader gap, as the North Italic version of the abbreviation C for centuria. The remaining sequence, read erul, he interpreted as the name of a Germanic centurion Erul(us): centuria Eruli. His reading was readily accepted by runologists, forming the basis for Otto Höfler's Erulertheorie concerning the origin of the Runic script (see Höfler 1970: 114 f. and 1971: 154 f., Klingenberg 1973: 140, Schrodt 1975: 176). Aside from the improbable reading, Egger's interpretation, based on Reinecke's late dating of the helmet, is made chronologically impossible by Egg's new dating. See also Schmeja 1968: 140 f. and Nedoma 1995: 18–20 (II). The most attractive reading so far was Markey's, who, after a personal communication from Bernard Mees, suggested supposed kerup to be an abbreviation for a Celtic PN Keru-bogios (Markey 2001: 117), as in Lepontic setupk = Setu-bogios – this is obsolete with the new reading of as Tau (see T).

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.

The reading of Mentz 1954–55: 257 karuz is groundless and negligible.

Further references: Kretschmer 1943: 187, Prosdocimi 1986: 34 f., Markey 2001: 116 f., Urban & Nedoma 2002: 57 f.

Bibliography

Egg 1986	Markus Egg, Italische Helme. Studien zu den ältereisenzeitlichen Helmen Italiens und der Alpen. Teil 1: Text, Teil 2: Tafeln, Mainz: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum 1986.
Egger 1959	Rudolf Egger, Die Inschrift des Harigasthelmes, Wien: 1959. (Sonderabdruck aus dem Anzeiger der phil.-hist. Klasse der ÖAW, Jahrgang 1959, Nr. 5.)
Höfler 1970	Otto Höfler, "–", review of: Wolfgang Krause, Herbert Jankuhn, Die Runeninschriften im älteren Futhark [= Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, phil.-hist. Kl., 3. Folge 65], Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1966, Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen 222 (1970), 109–143.
Höfler 1971	Otto Höfler, "Herkunft und Ausbreitung der Runen", Die Sprache 17 (1971), 134–156.
Klingenberg 1973	Heinz Klingenberg, Runenschrift – Schriftdenken – Runeninschriften, Heidelberg: Winter 1973.
Kretschmer 1943	Paul Kretschmer, "Die vorgriechischen Sprach- und Volksschichten (Fortsetzung)", Glotta 30 (1943), 84–218.
Lipperheide & Rickelt 1896	Franz von Lipperheide, Karl Rickelt, Antike Helme, München: Mühlthaler's Königliche Hofbuchdruckerei 1896.
Markey 2001	Tom Markey, "A tale of two helmets: The Negau A and B inscriptions", The Journal of Indo-European Studies 29 (2001), 69–172.
Marstrander 1927	Carl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander, "Remarques sur les inscriptions des casques en bronze de Negau et de Watsch", Avhandlinger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo. Hist.-filos. klasse 1926/2 (1927), 1–26.