VR-13

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Inscription
Transliteration:	larịẹ
Original script:
Object:	VR-13 bone (bone)
Position:	back
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	11 cm <br /> – 1.5 cm
Number of letters:	5
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	complete
Date of inscription:	end of the 2nd–beginning of the 1st centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	MLR 123

Commentary

First published in Marinetti 2003: 114 (no. 4). Autopsied by TIR on 17^th November 2015.

Images in Marinetti 2003: fig. 1.4 (drawing) (= Marinetti 2004: fig. 2,4), MLR (photo).

Length 2.5 cm. The lines are deeply engraved and well distinguishable, but the execution is untidy, making the reading problematic. The first three letters , despite multiply scratched lines, are clear. The last two letters are disturbed by what are probably unrelated scratches in the bottom area. The inclusion of these scratches makes the two letters longer and the reading suspicious. The scratch interpreted as a bar of Lambda is one of them; an opposition Pi – Lambda would be surprising in this context, and point towards the Lepontic sphere. Equally unlikely is Marchesini's segmentation of the last group of scratches into and written in a pointless ligature. The last letter is either or, regarding the letter height, . The rightmost of the scratches, clearly below the line, is tentatively read as a punctuation mark by Marinetti.

If the final letter is Epsilon, the sequence might be a Raetic individual name.

On the other side of the bone, a number of thin scratches in the centre, which cannot be arranged into letters. In the upper area, more deeply engraved short scratches to parallel the ones disturbing the inscription.

Bibliography

Marinetti 2003	Anna Marinetti, "Iscrizioni retiche di San Giorgio Valpolicella (VR)", Quaderni di Archeologia del Veneto (QdAV) IXX (2003), 111–117.
Marinetti 2004	Anna Marinetti, "Nuove iscrizioni retiche dall'area veronese", Studi Etruschi 70 (2004), 408–420.