MA-4

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Inscription
Transliteration:	]eiluke[(?)?]śu
Original script:	[ ][
Object:	MA-4 antler (antler)
Position:	front
Script:	North Italic script (Magrè alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	11 cm <br /> – 1.6 cm
Number of letters:	8
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	fragmentary
Date of inscription:	3rd–2nd centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	PID 223, 235 LIR MA-19 MLR 47 TM 218477
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 162, 164

Commentary

First published in Pellegrini 1918: 189 (no. 20).

Images in Pellegrini 1918: 189, fig. 27 (drawing), LIR (photos and drawings), MLR (drawing).

The remains of the inscription are written on two fragments which do not fit together, but are clearly part of the same object. Pellegrini in the original publication treated the two parts as one inscription, but Whatmough separated them. Schumacher followed Whatmough in assigning two sigla (MA-4, MA-15). In the TIR, the inscription is filed as MA-4; the siglum MA-15 is abandoned.

The letters are deeply and neatly incised and well legible. On both fragments, they are written in the middle of the antler piece. The letters on fragment 2 (length 1.6 cm) are taller than those on fragment 1 (length 4.1 cm), which is probably due to the increasing breadth of the surface towards that end. The upper part of the hasta of first coincides with the breaking edge, as does the lower part of the right hasta of . The other letters are slightly damaged by various breaks and abrasions, but all unambiguous. Judging by the curve of the antler piece, the lacuna can hardly be larger than about 1.5 cm, which means one or two letters. On fragment 1 after the second , a straight bit of the breaking edge in the lower area may show the remains of a vertical hasta. On fragment 2, the remains of an oblique hasta or bar can be cearly seen along the edge in the upper area. Pellegrini amended to ]eilukenuśu, comparing -nuśu- on MA-14. While this parallel is hardly compelling, is likely.

No interpretation can be offered. -ke may be the preterite ending, repeatedly occurring in Magrè as part of the word þinaχe. For the lexical base cp. maybe like or even eluku. Cp. also ker in MA-10.

On the back, at 2.6 cm from the broader end, an arrangement of lines like intersecting (length 2.8 cm), executed with single lines unlike the marks on most other antler votives from Magrè.

Further references: Kretschmer 1932: 136, Battisti 1936: 497, Vetter 1943: 80.

Bibliography

Battisti 1936	Carlo Battisti, "Rivista Linguistica Etrusca 1932-35 (Prima puntata)", Studi Etruschi 10 (1936), 488–517.
Kretschmer 1932	Paul Kretschmer, "Die Etruskerfrage und die Inschriften von Magrè", in: Axel Nelson (Ed.), Symbolae philologicae O.A. Danielsson Octogenario dicatae, Uppsala: 1932, 134–142.
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)