MI·2

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	atep
Reading in original script:
Object:	MI·2 Parabiago (cup)
Position:	foot, outside
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	prob. North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
adapted to:	Latin script
Letter height:	0.6–1 cm0.236 in <br />0.394 in <br />
Number of letters:	4–5
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Augustan [from object]
Date of inscription:	late 1st c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 109 Morandi 2004: 132
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 611 no. 132

Images

Cup MI·2 Parabiago with inscription MI·2

Inscription MI·2

Cup MI·2 Parabiago and inscription MI·2 from Tizzoni, reproduced by Solinas

Commentary

First published in Tizzoni 1984: 72, no. 3. Examined for LexLep on 28^th April 2022.

Images in Tizzoni 1984: tav. XLIV e (drawing = Solinas 1995: 367, no. 109), Frontini 1985: tav. 16.12 (drawing).

Inscribed in a curve on the foot of the cup, with the upper parts of the letters pointing outward. Initial alpha is retrograde and has a shortened first hasta. Frontini's drawing shows non-retrograde alpha as the final letter; Tibiletti Bruno 1984: 123 also reads alpha (discounting the bar of tau and reading upsilon as second letter, followed by a single iota → auia in Latin script). However, the impression of a lower bar in the last letter is due to one of the concentric circles on the foot (and a combination of two entirely different forms of alpha would be unlikely anyway). Tizzoni's drawing correctly shows pi or, less likely, inverted lambda as the final letter; Morandi accordingly reads atiil or atiip, assuming an abbreviated personal name and comparing specifically atilonei. Double iota, however, is not otherwise attested in language-encoding Cisalpine Celtic inscriptions; since Latin or Latinised script is indicated by tau with a straight hasta and made plausible by the low dating, the two verticals are better read as cursive Latin epsilon . The letter forms of the inscription are very similar to those in the Latin alphabetarium at Carona (Casini & Fossati 2013b), which also include retrograde alpha with a shortened first hasta, cursive epsilon, tau with inclined bar (on top of the hasta) and Lepontic pi (cf. Salomon 2023: 23 f.).

atep is an abbreviation of a personal name like ateporix vel sim. (see the word page).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Casini & Fossati 2013b	Stefania Casini, Angelo E. Fossati, "L'alfabeto latino inciso sul masso Camisana 1 di Carona (Bergamo)", Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 21 (2013), 147–155.
Frontini 1985	Patrizia Frontini, La ceramica a vernice nera nei contesti tombali della Lombardia [= Archeologia dell'Italia Settentrionale 3], Como: 1985.