BZ-24
Inscription | |
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Transliteration: | osṣuṛie |
Original script: | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Variant Reading: | osṣup̣ie![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Object: | BZ-24 slab (sandstone) |
Position: | front |
Orientation: | 0° |
Script: | Latin script |
Direction of writing: | sinistroverse |
Letter height: | 44 cm <br /> – 5.4 cm |
Number of letters: | 7 |
Number of lines: | 1 |
Craftsmanship: | engraved |
Current condition: | complete, damaged |
Archaeological culture: | Roman republican period [from object] |
Date of inscription: | |
Date derived from: | |
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Language: | Raetic |
Meaning: | 'Ossurie' (PN) |
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Alternative sigla: | none |
Sources: | Schumacher 2004: 324 ff. |
Images
Object BZ-24 slab with inscription BZ-24.
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Inscription BZ-24.
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Commentary
First published in Buonamici 1932b: 480 f.
Pictures in Mayr 1956: 175 (drawing) and Schumacher 2004: Taf. 14 (photo).
Listed as BZ-I in Schumacher's corpus.
Length 24 cm. Engraved on the upper part of the stela, inside a house-shaped frame together with a wave-like pattern.
The letters are not all equally well legible, some having suffered more by erosion than others. The circle of is clear despite a disturbance in the upper right area, next to which a piece of the stone has broken off. The next letter, a rounded
distinctly longer than
, is equally unambiguous. To the left of this, an oblique line running parallel to the middle part of
is clearly visible, suggesting another
. No other reading seems feasible, although the area under the central line is disturbed, and no trace of a line can be made out in the area above it. (The upper part of the preceding
is less deeply scratched than the lower curve; if the same was the case with the second
, the upper part might indeed be completely gone.) The angle of
, the same height as
again, is clear. The letter after
is problematic: The hasta of a shape like a Raetic
, the same height as
, is prolonged in the bottom (though heavily eroded in that part) to the height of
, prompting Mayr 1956: 175 to read Latin
p. The area where the downstroke of a Latin
would be is disturbed; what is visible there looks more like a dot which may or may not be intentional. An interpretation of
as Etruscoid r is unlikely due to the presence of
. The inscription concludes with unambiguous
and
, both as high as
.
The inscription is classified as being written in the Latin script due to most letters displaying decidedly Latin features: Apart from the presence of ,
is rounded and written twice, and
features straight bars.
appears to be written with serifs (cp. RN-1). The epigraphically Raetic features of the inscription are the sinistroverse writing and
with the upper angle/curve opening against writing direction.
Linguistically, the inscription can be interpreted as a Raetic individual name typically ending in -ie. Schumacher prefers a reading ossurie based on the observation that two names ending in -urie (really only one: φelturie), but none ending in -upie, are documented in the Raetic corpus. The interpretation of the sequence as a name is of course supported by the fact that the stela is identified as a tombstone by ??? – the only proper inscribed grave stela known from the Raetic area. It appears to document the transition between Raetic and Roman culture in the Bozen area, with a person bearing a Raetic name having a tombstone of Southern type erected in their honour. The question remains, why the individual name stands alone without a patronym so frequently attested on movable objects, although the name systems of both Etruscans and Romans were also multipart.
Further references: Lunz 1990: 38 f.
Bibliography
Buonamici 1932b | Giulio Buonamici, "Rivista di epigrafia etrusca 1931–1932", Studi Etruschi 6 (1932), 459–496. |
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Mayr 1956 | Karl M. Mayr, "Räto-römischer Grabstein mit Inschrift aus Maderneid in Eppan", Der Schlern 30 (1956), 175–176. |