TI·1

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	????
Reading in original script:
Object:	TI·1 Gudo (beaker)
Position:	bottom, outside
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	unknown
Letter height:	0.8–3.1 cm0.315 in <br />1.22 in <br />
Number of letters:	0
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca II B [from object]
Date of inscription:	late 6th c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	none
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): note XV Solinas 1995: 17 Motta 2000: 16 Morandi 2004: 2
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 520 no. 2

Images

Beaker TI·1 Gudo with inscription TI·1 from Morandi	Inscription TI·1 from Morandi	Inscription TI·1 from Morandi	Inscription TI·1 from Solinas	Beaker TI·1 Gudo with inscription TI·1
Beaker TI·1 Gudo with inscription TI·1

Commentary

First published in Baserga 1911: 95. Examined for LexLep on 16^th October 2023.

Images in PID: 83 (drawing), Stöckli 1975: 17 f., fig. 11, Solinas 1995: 327 (drawing), Morandi 1999: 154, fig. 2 (drawing = Morandi 2004: 525, fig. 8.2) and 188, pl. I.1&2 (photos).

Inscribed on the bottom of the beaker below the edge of the shoulder (length 6.2 cm). The implausible reading mχme goes back to Whatmough PID: 82 f., n. XV, who already points out that the lines are all joined to each other, and that inscription "may have been meant to be alphabetic, or may be merely ornamental". Solinas 1995 refers to "segni forse alfabetici", Morandi 2004 classifies the scratching as a pseudo-inscription, its zig-zag elements being comparable to the non-script section of NO·1 (see also Morandi 1999: 154). That the inscription is at least script-adjacent is also indicated by the only plausible letter shape, epsilon with four bars, which is attested in the coin legend NM·6, and otherwise more commonly in the Camunic alphabets, e.g. on the Castaneda flagon from the same area and timeframe as the Gudo beaker.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Baserga 1911	Giovanni Baserga, "La necropoli preromana di Gudo nel Canton Ticino", Rivista Archeologica di Como 62 (1911), 95.