TI·30

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	mationa[
Reading in original script:	]
Object:	TI·30 Aranno (stela)
Position:	front
Orientation:	270°
Frame:	?  (left: unknown, middle: top and bottom, right: feet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	6.5–12.5 cm2.559 in <br />4.921 in <br />
Number of letters:	7
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	La Tène B, La Tène C
Date of inscription:	4th–mid-2nd c. BC
Type:	prob. funerary
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'for Mationa ...' (?)
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 272 d Solinas 1995: 1 B Motta 2000: 8 d Morandi 2004: 28
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 535 no. 28

Images

Drawing inscription TI·30 from Giussani

Drawing of inscription TI·30 from Morandi]] mationa(

Stela fragment TI·30 Aranno with inscription TI·30 from Motta

Fragment TI·30 Aranno with inscription TI·30

Commentary

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

Images in Mommsen 1853: Taf. I.5c (drawings by Pelli = CII: tab. I.1C a and b), Monti 1860: 59, no. 2 (drawing = CII: tab. I.1C c), CII: tab. LVIII.1C (drawing of a cast by Serafino Balestra ~ Oberziner 1883: 172 ~ Pauli 1885: Taf. I.1c ~ Giussani 1902: 33, fig. 3 (drawing), Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 111 and 117 (photos) and 116 (drawing ~ Tibiletti Bruno 1990b: 81), Motta 2000: 203, fig. 7 (photo), Morandi 2004: 536, fig. 9.28 (drawing). Photo of a plaster cast, probably from the Museo Civico Lugano, in Motta & Ricci 1908: tav. II (= Crivelli 1943: 34, fig. 55); 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.

Fragmentary inscription (length of the remains 53 cm), running from the bottom of the stela toward the top, inscribed between frame lines (width 13.5 cm) which end in stylised feet, the widening just visible at the breaking edge. The preserved section thus represents the beginning of the inscription; no letters can be seen on the intact surface before mu. The letters are well legible and unambiguous. After the last alpha, traces of a hasta may be visible in the lower part of the line, though this is uncertain due to the splintering of the surface at the breaking edge.

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; TI·30 was the first to be identified as a separate inscription by Whatmough PID: 89 (cf. already Rhŷs 1913: 23).

The sequence mationa( is the beginning of a personal name. While there are multiple theoretical options for the ending (nom. mationa, patronym dat. mationalui/mationalai), the most likely is a dative of an individual name mationai 'for Mationa' (cf. Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 136, Morandi 2004; see the word page for details), the lost part of the inscription containing a patronym and/or the formula word pala (cf. TI·29).

Dating according to De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206 (type C with stylised feet).

See also Monti 1860: 59, CII: iii, no. 1c, Addenda et Corrigenda, c.2033, Corssen 1874–1875 I: 946 f., Oberziner 1883: 171 f., Pauli 1885: 8, no. 13c, 70–74, Motta & Ricci 1908: 28 f., Rhŷs 1913: 21–23, no. 7c, Giussani 1902: 33 f., no. 2, PID: 553, Crivelli 1943: 34, Tibiletti Bruno 1965, Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 356, Tibiletti Bruno 1975 passim.

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.