WE-3

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Inscription
Transliteration:	laspasieluku / piθamnuale
Original script:
Object:	WE-3 handle ()
Position:	outside
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	boustrophedon
Letter height:	11 cm <br /> – 1.5 cm
Number of letters:	22
Number of lines:	2
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	complete, damaged
Date of inscription:
Date derived from:
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	'X-ed by/for Laspa, son of Piθamne'
Alternative sigla:	LIR BZ-32
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 189, 342

Images

Object WE-3 antler with inscription WE-3 - line 2.

Object WE-3 antler with inscription WE-3 - line 1.

Commentary

First published in Dal Rì 1987: 178 (no. 731).

Pictures in Dal Rì 1987: fig. 305 (photos), Schumacher 2004: Taf. 7,1 and 2 (photos) and Taf. 5,1 (drawings), LIR (photos and drawings) and Tecchiati et al. 2011: figg. 35–37 (photos).

Length 6 and 6.5 cm respectively. The inscription is written boustrophedon in two lines, both sinistroverse, with one being inverted. The lines are not quite straight, the letters are of unequal height, and hastae and bars do not touch. The scratches are much faded; while some lines or parts of lines are still well visible, others are almost gone. The reading is nevertheless unambiguous, including that of -ale, though damaged by a crack. Note that in line 2 is turned against writing direction; the reading as p is supported by the good documentation of the name piθamne. This reading is also supported by the fact that the two sigmas of this inscription have a different orientation although they are very close to each other.

Both lines start at the respective end of the object; it cannot be securely determined in which order they should be read: in our line 1, a non-script sequence, much damaged by a broad crack, follows at a certain distance; this group ( or similar) does not belong with the inscription, being scratched much more deeply, presumably with a different instrument. Similarly, in our line 2, a very faintly and untidily scratched -shape follows. Both these elements differ clearly from both inscription and the ornament bands in application technique and seem to have been added at a later time; they cannot be interpreted as line fillers. Our arrangement is based on the interpretation of the inscription as the typically Raetic group of an individual name plus patronymic in the pertinentive case, accompanied by a verbal form in -ku. Cp. ???.

Further references: Mancini 1994: 289, Rix 1998: 34.

Bibliography

Dal Rì 1987	Lorenzo Dal Rì, "Influssi etrusco-italici nella regione retico-alpina", in: Raffaele De Marinis (Ed.), Gli Etruschi a nord del Po, Mantova: Regione Lombardia - Provincia e Comune di Mantova 1987, 160–179.
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)
Mancini 1994	Alberto Mancini, "-", review of: Stefan Schumacher, Die rätischen Inschriften. Geschichte und heutiger Stand der Forschung [= Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Sonderheft 79], Innsbruck: Verlag des Instituts für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck 1992, Geschichte und Region / Storia e regione 3/1994 (1994), 286–291.