MA-2

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Inscription
Transliteration:	piθanmelka[θ̣ụṛịẹþ̣ụ
Original script:	[
Object:	MA-2 antler (antler)
Position:	front
Script:	North Italic script (Magrè alphabet)
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Letter height:	0.20.2 cm <br /> – 2.6 cm
Number of letters:	17
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	complete, damaged
Date of inscription:	3rd–2nd centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	'Piθanme ?'
Alternative sigla:	PID 222, 230 IR 7 LIR MA-10 MLR 60 TM 218475
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 161, 339

Commentary

First published in Pellegrini 1918: 185 (no. 13).

Images in Pellegrini 1918: 185, fig. 20 (drawing), IR (photo tav. XXXVIII c =LIR), MLR (photo).

Length 11.7 cm. The inscription is written on two fragments which have not been joined together in restoration. Pellegrini in the original publication treated the two parts as one inscription, but Whatmough separated them. Schumacher, despite recognising that they do belong together, followed Whatmough in assigning two sigla (MA-2, MA-3). In the TIR, the inscription is filed as MA-2; the siglum MA-3 is abandoned. Note that MLR 60 only refers to fragment 1; fragment 2 (formerly MA-3) is not included. The inscription erroneously referred to sub MA-3 in Marchesini's concordance (MLR 10, p. 319) is BZ-7.

The sequence on fragment 1 (length 6.5 cm) is well legible. The fragment is damaged by a horizontal break; of the lower piece, the rightmost part is missing, damaging the last four letters. The letters are applied in the middle with a little distance to both edges, only extends to the upper edge. While the two upper bars are tidily scratched, the lower one is offset toward the bottom and crosses the hasta. The third bar of is short and may have been added belatedly. Note that the two Alphas are oriented differently. Fragment 2 only preserves the lower parts of the remaining letters (length 5.2 cm), but Pellegrini's original reading can be confirmed as highly likely. The leftmost edge coincides with the lower part of the right hasta of . Of the next letter , the lower part is preserved on fragment 2, the leftmost line of the upper part on fragment 1. does not quite align with on fragment 1, but the hasta is slightly curved also in the first . After two tips of oblique lines which must be , an angle which can only be . Then, the tips of two vertical hastae, followed by a bar – conceivably . A break runs along the second hasta. is unambiguous (with three angles, as can be determined by the breadth of the object). Finally, again two oblique lines forming , the right one coinciding with the breaking edge.

The amply attested individual name piθamne, here with nasal metathesis, can be identified without doubt. The following lka, however, can hardly be the beginning of a word. -þu, reoccurring in MA-5 and MA-23, appears to be a suffix or inflectional ending; (...)θurie might qualify as another individual name.

On the back, at 2.6 cm from the broader end, an arrangement of lines of varying thickness in groups is visible near the upper and lower edges where the cut face is intact, as is the case in all the antler votives from Magrè. Note that the lines on fragment 2 align with those on fragment 1, confirming their belonging together.

Further references: Battisti 1936: 496, 498, Vetter 1943: 80, Kretschmer 1943: 189 f., Vetter 1954: 74, Pellegrini & Prosdocimi 1967: 158, Pisani 1964: 318 (no. 134b), Tibiletti Bruno 1967: 1 ff., Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 237 f.

Bibliography

Battisti 1936	Carlo Battisti, "Rivista Linguistica Etrusca 1932-35 (Prima puntata)", Studi Etruschi 10 (1936), 488–517.
IR	Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.
Kretschmer 1943	Paul Kretschmer, "Die vorgriechischen Sprach- und Volksschichten (Fortsetzung)", Glotta 30 (1943), 84–218.
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)