TI·29

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]ạniui : p?[ / ]ḳionei : p[ / ]????[
Reading in original script:	]?[ ][ ]????[
Object:	TI·29 Aranno (stela)
Position:	front
Frame:	??  (left: unknown, middle: all, right: unknown)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	9–16 cm3.543 in <br />6.299 in <br />
Number of letters:	18
Number of words:	6
Number of lines:	3
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	La Tène B, La Tène C [from object]
Date of inscription:	4th–mid-2nd c. BC [from object]
Type:	prob. funerary
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'... for °anios P° ... for °kiu P° ...'
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 272 a Solinas 1995: 1 A Motta 2000: 8 a Morandi 2004: 27
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 534 f. no. 27

Images

Drawing of inscription TI·29 from Giussani

Fragment TI·29 Aranno with inscription TI·29

Commentary

First published in Mommsen 1853: 202 f., no. 5d. Examined for LexLep on 18^th October 2023.

Images in Mommsen 1853: Taf. I.5d (drawings by Vittore Pelli = CII: tab. I.1D a and b), Monti 1860: 59, no. 1 (drawing = CII: tab. I.1D c), CII: tab. LVIII.1D (drawing of a cast by Serafino Balestra ~ Oberziner 1883: 172 ~ Pauli 1885: Taf. I.1d ~ Giussani 1902: 33, fig. 3), Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 110 and 117 (photos) and 116 (drawing ~ Tibiletti Bruno 1990b: 81). Photo of a plaster cast, probably from the Museo Civico Lugano, in Motta & Ricci 1908: tav. II; while this cast must be assumed to be lost, two more casts are said to be kept at the Rätisches Museum (Chur) and at the defunct Museo Civico Storico Bellinzona by Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 104, n. 16 (the latter currently untraceable). In great detail on the history of the documentation Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 103–105 with footnotes.

The middle parts of three lines are preserved on the fragment, each between frame lines which are shared (cf. TI·34.1/TI·34.2): line 1 length of remains 36 cm, frame width 15–16 cm; line 2 length of remains 35 cm, frame width 10–12 cm, line 3 length of remains 37.5 cm, frame width 6–7 cm. The letters in lines 1 and 2 are damaged, but reasonably well legible, while the ones in line 3 are illegible. While no further letters are really visible above and below the outer frame lines, it cannot be excluded that a fourth line existed below line 3. Comparison with other pala-stelae from the Ticino suggests that each line belongs to a discrete inscription. The decreasing width of the frames indicates that the inscription in line 1 is the primary one; cf. TI·36.1/TI·36.2 and TI·45.1/TI·45.2, where the shorter of a pair of frames is also less wide than the taller one. Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 121 suggests that the inscription in line 3 may have been added at a later date.

Line 1: The remains of what is probably alpha (an oblique hasta and a bar beneath it) can be seen by the breaking edge. The sequence ]niui : p[ is clear; Whatmough's alpha after nu is a chimera. The bars of nu do not form a curve. After pi, the trace of a straight hasta may be made out in the lower part of the line; no bars are visible.
Line 2: Beside the breaking edge two bars which can only belong to kappa. The bars of nu connect in a curve; the bars of epsilon are only slightly oblique.
Line 3: No consensus can be drawn from older drawings or reading suggestions – least of all from Rhŷs and Whatmough, who saw the inscription, and read ]aamiti:[ and ]ẹ.ịoṇụị:̣p̣[ (followed by Solinas 1995 ]ẹ.ịọṇụ--[ and Morandi 2004 ]ẹ ịọṇụ[), respectively; neither could any previously proposed letters be confirmed in autopsy.

In the earliest publications, it was generally assumed that the four fragments from Aranno (TI·29, TI·30, TI·31, TI·32) were parts of the same inscription. Rhŷs 1913: 23 observed that they must belong to at least two stelae (keeping TI·30 separate; thus also Whatmough PID: 89). The separation into four distinct inscriptions goes back to Tibiletti Bruno 1965 (see the object page). Considering, however, the similarity of the stone fragments bearing the present inscription and TI·31, these two fragments were with some likelyhood part of the same stela. The fragments of text agree, in that TI·31 ]aḷạ[ may represent the final word pala of the inscription in line 1 of TI·29; the preserved parts of line 1 would thus amount to ]ạniui : p?[   ]aḷạ[ 'pala for °nios son of P°', with most of the patronym missing. (Similarly already Whatmough, though he considered the fragments to be adjacent: ]ạnạui : p̣|ạḷạ[). Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 115 argues that this cannot be the case since the width of the frame is different, measuring 15.6 cm in line 1 of TI·29 but 14.1 cm in TI·31. According to our measurements, however, the frame of TI·29 line 1 tapers slightly from 16 cm at the bottom end toward 15 cm at the top end, agreeing with a frame width of 15 cm in TI·31 (agreeing with the measurements given by Whatmough, and cf. already Mommsen); the thickness of the frame lines themselves is also equivalent (5 mm).

In lines 1 and 2, the elements before the separators are individual names in the dative (o-stem )aniui, on-stem )kionei, see the word pages for details), followed after the separators by a word beginning in p. p° in both lines could theoretically be pala (thus Motta 2000: 202, no. 8a and Morandi 2004; cf. the three inscriptions on the Tesserete stela with only individual names plus pala), but either or both forms – particularly in line 1, if pala is indeed preserved as TI·31 – can as well be patronyms beginning in ⟨p⟩ (cf. Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 136 f., 1997: 1015) – possibly those of brothers, who would bear the same patronym (Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 137), if the inscriptions in line 1 and 2 are associated (rather than the stone having been reused at a later date). As observed by Rhŷs 1913: 22 f., no. 7d, if )kionei is not a dative of an on-stem, but of an i-stem °kionis, the two people named in lines 1 and 2 could be husband and wife (cf. TI·36.1/TI·36.2).

See also Monti 1860: 59, CII: iii, no. 1d, Addenda et Corrigenda, c.2033, Corssen 1874–1875 I: 946 f., Oberziner 1883: 171 f., Pauli 1885: 8, no. 13d, 70–74, Giussani 1902: 33 f., no. 2, Motta & Ricci 1908: 28 f., PID: 553, Crivelli 1943: 34, Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 356, Tibiletti Bruno 1975 passim, Tibiletti Bruno 1990b: 90, Salomon 2024b: 30 f.

Dating according to De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206, who tentatively classify the document as their type C although the execution of the ends of the frames is unknown (but cf. TI·30).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

CII	Ariodante Fabretti, Corpus inscriptionum italicarum antiquioris aevi. Ordine geographico digestum et glossarium italicum, in quo omnia vocabula continentur ex umbricis, sabinis, oscis, volscis, etruscis aliisque monumentis quae supersunt, Augusta Taurinorum: 1867.
Corssen 1874–1875	Paul Wilhelm Corssen, Über die Sprache der Etrusker, Leipzig: Teubner 1874–1875. (2 volumes)
Crivelli 1943	Aldo Crivelli, Atlante preistorico e storico della Svizzera Italiana. Vol. 1: Dalle origini alla civiltà romana, Bellinzona: Istituto Editoriale Ticinese 1943.
De Marinis & Motta 1991	Raffaele C. De Marinis, Filippo Motta, "Una nuova iscrizione lepontica su pietra da Mezzovico (Lugano)", Sibrium 21 (1990–1991), 201–225.