SZ-23

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Inscription
Transliteration:	]ilt[?
Original script:	][
Object:	SZ-23 antler (antler)
Position:	outside
Script:	North Italic script (Sanzeno alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Number of letters:	3 – 6
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	fragmentary, damaged
Archaeological culture:	Late Iron Age [from object]
Date of inscription:	5th–1st centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	cultural context [from object]
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	PID 204 IR 63 LIR SA-38, SA-41 MLR 215, 240
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 137, 147

Images

Object SZ-23 antler with inscription SZ-23.

Commentary

First published in PID. Republished in IR. Autopsied by TIR in November 2013.

Images 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 antler). Whatmough, following Conway, read ilpṣịị, with the last three letters "incomplete at the top", which suggests that more was left of the upper or lower part of the three scratches, traces of which can now be seen only on the smallest fragment, before the object came apart (see SZ-23 antler). Mancini and, following him, Schumacher kept the fragments separate, and therefore failed to recognise the inscription. Our reading based on the alignment of the fragments by the project's illustrator endorses the reading of the first three letters; s is not verifiable, although the respective scratch is slightly aslant. Despite the comparatively large lacuna before , the presence of more letters in the beginning cannot be excluded. Cp. NO-4.

The inscription is classified as being written in the Sanzeno alphabet 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.

Further references: NRIE 100, Battisti 1944: 231.

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)