SL-2.3

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Inscription
Transliteration:	þuφniφanuaφi
Original script:	Þ6 s
Object:	SL-2 helmet (bronze) (Inscriptions: SL-2.1, SL-2.2, SL-2.4)
Position:	right-hand side"right-hand side" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property., front area"front area" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property., lower area"lower area" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property., outside
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	0.70.7 cm <br /> – 1.0 cm
Number of letters:	14
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	embossed
Current condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	La Tène A [from object]
Date of inscription:	second half of 5th–beginning of 4th century BC [from object]
Date derived from:	typology [from object]
Language:	unknown
Meaning:
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 330

Images

Inscription SL-2.3.

Commentary

First published in Mommsen 1853: 208, no. 12 (with older literature).

Further references: Fabretti 1867: no. 59, Von Sacken & Kenner 1866: 292, no. 1089, Corssen 1874: 949 (Note), Pichler 1880: 43 f., Oberziner 209, AIF I: 36, no. 99, Olsen 1903: 23 ff., Marstrander 1925: passim, Marstrander 1927: 6 f., Egg 1986: 227, Nedoma 1995: 19 f. (Ic), Urban & Nedoma 2002: 57.

Pictures in Giovanelli 1845: tav. II (drawing), Giovanelli 1876: tav. II (drawing), Mommsen 1853: Taf. I, 12B (see Mommsen 1853: 208 f.) (= AIF I: Taf VI, 99 A = Marstrander 1925: 38), Fabretti tab. VI, Pichler 1880: ??? (= AIF I: Taf. VI, 99 B), Marstrander 1927: 7, Fig. 3 and 4 (drawings) and Pl. I (photo), Egg 1986: 226, Abb. 183 (drawing) (= Schumacher 2004: Taf. 16, 3) and Nedoma 1995: Abb. 6 and 7 (photos).

Length 6.5 cm. Embossed with a pointed tool on the chamfer. The inscription is upside-down when the helmet is worn.

The inscription is in good condition. A white inlay was added sometime before 1927, possibly for photos made for Marstrander 1927, but must have been cleaned away since. Remains can still be seen in some of the deeper indentations. All letters are well legible.

The problem lies in the identification of the four characters consisting of a vertical hasta with a circle (or circloid) on top (letters 1, 3, 6 and 13). The first character features two such circles. While the bottom circle is as lopsided as the circles in the other letters, the top one is perfectly circular and made of more, but shallower and not easily visible indentations arranged around a single particularly deep one. It seems to have been executed with much care. Letter 3 does not much resemble 1: The circle is irregular and distinctly bigger, taking up more than half of the length of the hasta. The circle on top of letter 6 is considerably smaller, though still bigger than in letter 1; letter 13 features a circle almost as small as those of letter 1, with one indentation belonging to the hasta sitting on top of it.

It is theoretically possible that all four characters are intended as the same letter – Mommsen read þ̣uþniþanuaþi. While both the characters for þ and φ can appear as hastae with circles in the upper area, in the North Italic alphabets is a variant of , with the circle sitting, in different sizes, anywhere on the central or upper part of the hasta. In this light, all the respective characters in SL-2.3 could be identified as , because in all cases the hasta continues into or through the circle, in letter 13 even beyond it. Þ5 s, being a variant of Þ4 s, should have a circle above the hasta. Þ6 s might be explained by a mistake of the writer, who may have started applying the inscription the other way round. (Compare the question of how SL-2.5 was applied.) However, the circles of letter 1 are much smaller, and the appearance of the top circle seems peculiar. We are inclined to think that Þ6 s is to be read þ. The "dumbbell-shape" may be an otherwise unattested variant of Þ5 s, or due to an effort of the writer to distinguish the letter more clearly from the three s – possibly as an afterthought when realising that his circles had become continually smaller. Even the upper circle may be an amendation, if the deep indentation at its centre was intended as the top element of Þ4 s. The reading of letters 6 and 13 as þ we consider unlikely.

The reading with one anlauting dental and three labials is the one usually favoured, because it is the basis for Marstranders interpretation of the inscription as a Celtic personal name (see þuφniφanuaφi). Marstrander assumed that the inscription was written in the Bozen alphabet (as identified by Pauli). Prosdocimi in Prosdocimi & Scardigli 1976: 225 f., while agreeing with Marstrander's interpretation, regards the first letter as a variant of Zeta, with reference to RN-1.

The view that the first character is not a letter but some sort of symbol, decoration or punctuation mark, as held by Pauli and, following him, Olsen 1903: 25, is obsolete.

Bibliography

Marstrander 1925	Carl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander, "Les inscriptions des casques de Negau, Styrie", Symbolae Osloensis 3 (1925), 37–64.