VB·23

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	kiketụ / ṛẹṭalos
Reading in original script:
Object:	VB·23 Stresa (stela)
Position:	front
Orientation:	350°
Frame:	(left: straight, middle: top and bottom, right: straight)
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	4.5–6 cm1.772 in <br />2.362 in <br />
Number of letters:	13
Number of words:	2
Number of lines:	2
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	damaged
Archaeological culture:	La Tène D 2 [from object]
Date of inscription:	1st c. BC [from object]
Type:	funerary
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'Kiketu son of Retos' (?)
Alternative sigla:	Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 15 Solinas 1995: 121 Morandi 2004: 66
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 564 no. 66

Images

Gravestone from Bee with Latin inscription

Inscription VB·23 from De Giuli 1979

Stela VB·23 Stresa with inscription VB·23 from De Giuli 1979

Inscription VB·23 from Tibiletti Bruno 1979

Stela VB·23 Stresa with inscription VB·23

Commentary

First published in De Giuli 1979: 247. Examined for LexLep on 20^th April 2024.

Images in De Giuli 1979: 247 (photo fig. 2 = Mainardis 2009: 337, fig. 5, and drawing), Tibiletti Bruno 1979: 259, fig. 3 (drawing), Caramella & De Giuli 1993: 207 (drawing).

Inscribed on what is today the lower area of the slab, at ca. 53 cm distance from the top edge; the stone's original shape being unknown, it is not clear how the inscription was situated originally. It is written dextroverse in two left-aligned, slightly slanting lines (length line 1 28.5 cm, line 2 30.5 cm), which are inscribed in a rectangular frame. On the difficult reading see in detail Tibiletti Bruno 1979: 257. Though the inscription is damaged, the letters identified by Tibiletti can be identified reasonably well. Final, inverted upsilon in line 1 is damaged by a break along the second hasta; the surface around epsilon and St. Andrew's cross in line 2 is damaged by splintering, but the hasta and maybe the upper and lower bar of epsilon as well as the upper part of St. Andrew's cross are faintly visible.

Tibiletti Bruno 1979: 257–260 interprets retalos as a patronym in -al-, pointing to the late appearance of the suffix in NO·18 (Miasino) (thus also Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 167 f., no. 15, , Caramella & De Giuli 1993: 207 f., Solinas 1995: 372, no. 121, Morandi 2004: 564, no. 66). Differently Markey & Mees 2003: 139, who appear to regard kiketu as a patronym in -ū (see The Cisalpine Celtic Languages).

See the object page on the dating; VB·23 may belong to the oldest layer of gravestones from the Verbano based on the stone shape and frame, grammar, and the use of the Lepontic alphabet without evident Latin influence.

See also Tibiletti Bruno 1978c: 24 f.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Caramella & De Giuli 1993	Pierangelo Caramella, Alberto De Giuli, Archeologia dell'Alto Novarese, Mergozzo: Antiquarium Mergozzo 1993.
De Giuli 1978	Alberto De Giuli, "Le stele funerarie di Brisino", Bollettino Storico per la Provincia di Novara 69/1 (1978), 13–20.
De Giuli 1979	Alberto De Giuli, "Le stele funerarie di Brisino", Sibrium 14 (1978–1979), 245–252.
De Hoz 1990	Javier de Hoz, "El genitivo celtico de los temas en -o-", in: Francisco Villar (ed.), Studia indogermanica et palaeohispanica in honorem Antonio Tovar et Luis Michelena, Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca 1990, 315–329.