ST-4

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Inscription
Transliteration:	ạzile$aθiṿ·nuale
Original script:
Variant Reading:	ạzileθ̣aθiṿ·nuale
Object:	ST rock (stone) (Inscriptions: ST-1, ST-2, ST-3, ST-4, ST-5, ST-6, ST-7, ST-8, ST-9)
Position:	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.
Orientation:	0°
Script:	North Italic script
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	88 cm <br /> – 12 cm
Number of letters:	15
Number of characters:	16
Number of lines:	1
Craftsmanship:	engraved
Current condition:	damaged
Archaeological culture:	La Tène
Date of inscription:	5th–1st centuries BC
Date derived from:
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	'of/by Azi° ?aθivnu'
Alternative sigla:	IR 109 LIR STN-4 TM 218561
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 192, 225 f., 342 ff.

Images

Inscriptions ST-4, ST-9.

Commentary

First published in Vetter 1957.

Images in Vetter 1957: Taf. VI (photo = Mayr 1960: Abb. 2), Prosdocimi 1971: 36 (drawing = Schumacher 1992: Taf. 8,3 = Schmeja 1996: Abb. 3), Joppich 1971: 42 (drawing), Zavaroni 2004: Fig. 4 and 5 (photos/drawing) and Schumacher 2004: Taf. 19 (drawing). Numerous casts have been made of the Steinberg inscriptions; positives of the most recent one, made by the Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte Innsbruck in 1993, can be seen at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum and the Archäologische Staatssammlung München. Drawings of the arrangement of the inscriptions in Vetter 1957: 386, Prosdocimi 1971: 30, Zavaroni 2004: Fig. 15 and Schumacher 2002: 1276 (= Schumacher 2004: Taf 8,1); photos of the wall in Sydow 1989: Abb. 6, Gleirscher 1991: Abb. 3 and Mandl 2011: Abb. 133.

Length about 74 cm, running horizontally at (today) about 1.5 m from the ground in the left part of the rock wall. Fairly well legible despite erosion. Our reading follows Schumacher 2004: 349 ff. and 351 ff. The inscription is heavily marred by surrounding recent graffiti. The top of the first letter is damaged. The sixth character has the shape – Schumacher, arguing that the central vertical line is less deep than the other two, assumes that it is a later addition belonging to a zig-zag line which extends from the letter downwards, but this could not be confirmed: The scratch is broader and more eroded than the others and appears to belong to the character. It is therefore transcribed with a question mark, but a reading θaθivnuale is still not out of the question. The following is also marred by the addition of recent lines or runnels; the next letter, read by Schumacher, is damaged by a lacuna: Only the hasta is cearly visible, a curved bar reaches the bottom of the line. Above this bar, Schumacher sees the remains of a second (straight) bar just visible after the outer layer of stone broke off, but it is highly doubtful and does not match the lower bar or reach the top of the hasta. However, no other letter suggests itself; (more convenient linguistically) cannot be excluded. No traces of characters can be detected before the first or after the last letter.

The sequence can be segmented into a typical two-part Raetic name in the pertinentive case, with the peculiarity of an individual name featuring the allomorph -le (more usually -si). The status of between (?) the two parts of the name is unclear. For the separation of the suffixes with a punctuation mark compare ST-5 and ST-6.

Further references: Mayr 1958b, Mayr 1960: 309 f., Pisani 1964: 137 bis, Prosdocimi 1971: 36, 45 incl. Joppich 1971: 42, Schürr 1975: 606, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 232, Sydow 1989: 70 ff., Schmeja 1996: 16 f., Schürr 2001: 216 f., Schumacher 2002: 1276 ff., Zavaroni 2004: 53 ff.

Bibliography

Gleirscher 1991	Paul Gleirscher, Die Räter, Chur: Rätisches Museum 1991.
IR	Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.
Joppich 1971	Julius Joppich, "Anhang. Tonabdruck und Korrektur zur Lesung der Felsinschriften nach Emil Vetter", in: Wolfgang Meid, Hermann M. Ölberg, Hans Schmeja (Eds), Studien zur Namenkunde und Sprachgeographie. Festschrift für Karl Finsterwalder zum 70. Geburtstag [= Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft 16], Innsbruck: 1971, 41–44.
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)
Mandl 2011	Franz Mandl, Felsbilder. Österreich – Bayern: Nördliche Kalkalpen [= Anisa – Verein für alpine Forschung 4], Haus im Ennstal: 2011.
Mayr 1958b	Karl M. Mayr, "-", review of: Emil Vetter, "Die vorrömischen Felsinschriften von Steinberg in Nordtirol", Anzeiger der phil.-hist. Klasse der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Jg. 1957, Nr. 24 (1957), 384–398, Der Schlern 32 (1958), 303–304.