SZ-21

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Inscription
Transliteration:	?
Original script:	?
Object:	SZ-20 bronze (bronze) (Inscriptions: SZ-20, SZ-21)
Position:	front, upper area"upper area" is not in the list (front, back, top, bottom, inside, outside, neck, shoulder, foot, handle, ...) of allowed values for the "position" property.
Script:	unknown
Direction of writing:	unknown
Craftsmanship:	embossed
Current condition:	complete, restored
Date of inscription:	5th–1st centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	cultural context [from object]
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	PID 202 LIR SA-16 MLR 239 TM 218391
Sources:	Schumacher 2004: 137

Commentary

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

Image in LIR (drawing).

Along the edge on the animal's back, over a length about 4 cm, a succession of short strokes and angles: Whatmough, from Conway's drawing, read pnippipiav.i.. Mancini, despite conceding that the inscription is "in realtà inutilizzabile", suggests possible readings il.nuapiśav.i. or la.nuep.mav.i.. Despite the appropriately word-final occurrence of Venetic , the stokes are more likely to be decorative, possibly indicating a mane (see SZ-20 on the question of which animal we are looking at). Cp., however, SZ-13, also on an object atypical among the Sanzeno bronzes, with a very similar row of strokes along the edge, which cannot be interpreted as a mane or the like.

Due to a misunderstanding by Whatmough, inscriptions SZ-20 and SZ-21 were thought to be inscribed on two different, though similar, objects.

Further references: NRIE 98, Battisti 1944: 230.

Bibliography

Battisti 1944	Carlo Battisti, "Osservazioni sulla lingua delle iscrizioni nell'alfabeto etrusco settentrionale di Bolzano", Studi Etruschi 18 (1944), 199–236.
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)