SZ-1.1

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Inscription
Transliteration:	lasta φirimaþinaχe / χi kaśiχanu
Original script:
Object:	SZ-1 bronze (bronze) (Inscriptions: SZ-1.1, SZ-1.2)
Position:	front
Script:	North Italic script (Sanzeno alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	0.60.6 cm <br /> – 1.1 cm
Number of letters:	27
Number of lines:	2
Craftsmanship:	embossed
Current condition:	complete
Date of inscription:
Date derived from:
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	'Lasta (and) Θ(i)rima *śiχanu X-ed ?'
Alternative sigla:	IR 14 LIR SA-2 a
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 131, 335

Images

Object SZ-1 bronze with inscription SZ-1.1 - front side.

Commentary

First published in Mayr 1950: 333 (no. I). Autopsied by TIR in October 2014.

Images in Roberti 1950: Tav. I,I (drawing) = Mayr 1950: 335 (I), Pellegrini 1951: no. 1a (photo) and 307 (1a) (drawing), Morandi 1982: 203 (drawing), LIR (photo and drawing = IR).

Inscribed on the front of the bronze in two sinistroverse lines running along the edges, with the top of the letters toward the edge. Line 1, starting at the tail fin, turned out too long, the last two letters are added below the end of the line on the head (length 9 + 1.2 cm). Line 2, inverted in relation to line 1, starts at a small distance from these two letters, and runs back toward the tail fin (length 5.8 cm). The letters are fairly tidy and well legible, given the irregularity of the writing surface. Both spaces in our transliteration (between lasta and φirima in line 1, and χi and kaśiχanu in line 2) coincide with bulges conditioned by the back fins, and may not be real spaces, but only circumstantial gaps. In line 1, the fact that the gap does separate words may be coincidental; in line 2, the segmentation is debatable. Note, however, that there are four back fins, and in the two other cases there are letters entered right under them despite the bulge (cp. SZ-15.1). Of those, in line 2 is merely a little awkwardly elongated, in line 1 appears to have been a challenge: In addition to the hasta, there are three bars; the one first inscribed ( crossing the hasta) coincides with a bend in the fin, and was repeated on the left of the hasta. Another reading than is highly unlikely, but note that the identification of the special characters of Sanzeno and Magré relies on this occurrence of . below and to the left of final do clearly belong with line 1, as they are oriented the same way, and the last word must be read þinaχe. The crossing of the lower bar of with the hasta of the third in line 1 shows clearly that line 2 was inscribed after line 1.

Line 1 can be segmented into three words: two individual names ending in -a (lasta, φirima; both also documented elsewhere), and the verb þinaχe. Line 2 probably ends in the patronymic suffix -nu, but cannot be further segmented. Rix 1998: 19, 41 interprets χika as a failed attempt at the first part of śiχanu, but this ad hoc assumption seems a bit farfetched. If, as assumed by Rix 1998: 19 and Schumacher 2004: 296, -nu is employed both for men and mixed couples, the inscription may be translated: 'Lasta (and) Φ(i)rima *śiχanu X-ed [?]'. Cp. SZ-2 with two individual names plus patronymic in -nu.

Further references: Pellegrini 1951: 306 ff. (no. 1a) and 321 f., Mayr 1952: 175 (1), Vetter 1954: 70 (1a), Mayr 1959b: 337, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 224, Morandi 1982: 202 f.

Bibliography

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)
Mayr 1950	Karl M. Mayr, "Die Inschriften der Votive von Sanzeno (1)", Der Schlern 24 (1950), 332–336, 407–409.
Mayr 1952	Karl M. Mayr, "Zu den Inschriften der Votive von Sanzeno", Der Schlern 26 (1952), 175–177.
Mayr 1959b	Karl M. Mayr, "Rätisch esi, esiunne = "dieser, dieser da"?. Ein Beitrag zum rätischen Vokabular", Der Schlern 33 (1959), 337–338.