SZ-23

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Inscription
Transliteration:	ilp[?
Original script:	]
Object:	SZ-23 handle ()
Position:	outside
Script:	North Italic script (Sanzeno alphabet)
Direction of writing:	ambiguous
Number of letters:	3
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	damaged, fragmentary
Date of inscription:
Date derived from:
Language:	unknown
Meaning:
Alternative sigla:	PID 204 IR 63 LIR SA-38, SA-41
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 137, 147

Images

Object SZ-23 antler with inscription SZ-23.

Commentary

First published in PID. Republished in IR.
Further references: NRIE 100, Battisti 1944: 231.
Pictures in IR (photo Tav. L, fig. a and drawing) and LIR (photo and drawing).
The inscription erroneously bears two sigla SZ-23 and SZ-64 due to having been published twice (see SZ-23 handle). In PID, Whatmough, following Conway, read ilpṣịị, with the last three letters "incomplete at the top". Our reading based on the alignment of the fragments by the project's illustrator endorses the reading of the first three letters. Of the last three, only minimal traces are visible on the leftmost fragment; s is not verifiable. Possibly a piece went missing when the object fell apart. Mancini and, following him, Schumacher kept the fragments separate, and therefore failed to recognise the inscription.
The inscription is classified as being written in the Alphabet of Sanzeno because of the apparent presence of Sanzeno and , although there is not enough of it left to be entirely sure of its status as script.

Bibliography

Battisti 1944	Carlo Battisti, "Osservazioni sulla lingua delle iscrizioni nell'alfabeto etrusco settentrionale di Bolzano", Studi Etruschi 18 (1944), 199–236.
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)