VR-10

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Inscription
Transliteration:	ieśulat·naχe
Original script:
Object:	VR-10 bronze (bronze)
Position:	front
Script:	North Italic script (Magrè alphabet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Letter height:	1.41.4 cm <br /> – 1.9 cm
Number of letters:	11
Number of characters:	12
Number of lines:	11
Craftsmanship:	embossed
Current condition:	complete, damaged
Date of inscription:	end of the 2nd–beginning of the 1st centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from:	archaeological context [from object]
Language:	Raetic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	MLR 122 TM 653640

Commentary

First published in Marinetti 2003: 112 (no. 1). Autopsied by TIR on 17^th November 2015.

Image in Marinetti 2003: fig. 1.1 (drawing) (= Marinetti 2004: fig. 2.1), MLR (photo).

Length 6.3 cm, starting at about 1 cm from the undamaged end. The characters, all touching the upper edge, are neatly executed and unambiguous. A fine crack runs vertically through Upsilon.

The sequence ieśula is obscure. The final part of the inscription t·naχe represents the verbal form þinaχe, though the spelling is unusual. The use of Tau for writing the Raetic dental affricate is an expectable compromise in the absence of the Raetic special character, but note that Zeta is used in VR-11 and probably also VR-2 and VR-4. The short vertical stroke after Tau might be read Iota, but considering that the form is also shortened and written with puncts in the above-mentioned examples, the stroke is more likely to indeed be a syllabic punctuation mark. Assuming that the first syllable ie was treated as a regular CV-syllable, Tau in þnaχe is the only letter that needs to be punctuated. The question remains, why i was dropped in the first place – actual syncope is unlikely, as a is dropped additionally in VR-11. We seem to be concerned with an orthographical rather than a linguistical phenomenon.

On the back of the object, in the centre, a symbol (inverted).

Bibliography

Marinetti 2003	Anna Marinetti, "Iscrizioni retiche di San Giorgio Valpolicella (VR)", Quaderni di Archeologia del Veneto (QdAV) IXX (2003), 111–117.
Marinetti 2004	Anna Marinetti, "Nuove iscrizioni retiche dall'area veronese", Studi Etruschi 70 (2004), 408–420.