NO·1

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	§χosioiso §
Reading in original script:
Object:	NO·1 Castelletto sopra Ticino (beaker)
Position:	neck, outside
Orientation:	0°
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	0.6–1.5 cm0.236 in <br />0.591 in <br />
Number of letters:	8
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca II A [from object]
Date of inscription:	second quarter of 6th c. BC [from object]
Type:	prob. mark of possessor
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'of Xosios'
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 113 bis Morandi 2004: 74
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 569 f. no. 74

Images

Inscription NO·1 from Gambari & Colonna 1988	Photo of beaker NO·1 Castelletto sopra Ticino with symbol from Gambari & Colonna 1988	First part of inscription NO·1 from Morandi 2004	Second part of inscription NO·1 from Morandi 2004	Beaker NO·1 Castelletto sopra Ticino with inscription NO·1
Zig-zag line before inscription NO·1	First part of inscription NO·1	Second part of inscription NO·1	Symbol after inscription NO·1	Inscription NO·1

Commentary

First published in Gambari & Colonna 1988: 130–132.

Images in Gambari & Colonna 1988: 130, fig. 8 (drawing = Prosdocimi 1991: 142 = Lejeune 1990: 69 = Morandi 1999: 154, fig. 1 [traced]).

Inscribed sinistroverse and upright on the neck of the beaker. The language-encoding sequence χosioiso (length 4.8 cm) is situated between a zig-zag line on the right (length 6.2 cm) and a single sign on the left. The latter has the shape of an upward-pointing arrow with an extra branch on the right (height 2 cm). It is 2.3 cm distant from the longer sequence, incised more roughly than the letters, and resembles non-script marks on similar beakers (cf. VA·32 and the mark on the beaker Coll. Castelfranco 215 mentioned there); it is unlikely to have any direct relation to the language-encoding inscription. The zig-zag-band before the text, on the other hand, connects directly to the upper end of the first letter chi and looks like it belongs to the inscription; it is closed on the right end with a curved line and seems, as observed by Gambari & Colonna 1988: 131, to have been incised from left to right. According to Gambari & Colonna 1988: 131, n. 49, similar ornament bands before or following inscriptions are known also from Greek and Etruscan contexts (cf. also TI·1).

The letters of the inscription proper are not very regular, but appear to be incised by a confident hand. The three omicrons, executed as two more or less symmetrical half-circles, increase in size and quality. Both sigmas are made up of seven bars, with the uppermost angle opening against, the bottom-most in writing direction. Though sigma with more than four bars does occur (see S), this variant with seven bars is the only instance in the corpus; see Gambari & Colonna 1988: 142–144 for non-Celtic precedents and cf. in archaic inscriptions CO·6, which also attests the ending -oi̯so, with five-bar sigma. A vertical line, prolonged onto the body of the beaker, runs along the second sigma – Gambari & Colonna 1988: 131 suggest misspelled and corrected iota, cancellation of sigma, or a ligature. Morandi 1999: 155 f. takes an oblique line below final omicron to be part of the letter and suggests an alternative reading as three-bar sigma and bent iota, assuming that the writer cancelled out to replace it with with a different sound value. The line, however, looks rather like it was incised before sigma; the form χosioiso is linguistically more plausible than any emendations which consider the line (χosioio, χosioisio uel sim.; cf. Lejeune 1990: 69 f., Prosdocimi 1991: 142–144).

As already observed in the original publication, the inscription (which was at that time the oldest datable Cisalpine Celtic document) attests the genitive ending -oi̯so and, arguably, the use of chi for /k/ (p. 133 f., see Ψ) argues See further on the word page for the analysis of the sequence as a personal name in the genitive kos(si)i̯oi̯so, conceivably that of the beaker's owner, who was buried in the grave.

See also Motta 1992: 312 f., Morandi 1999: 153–156.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Gambari & Colonna 1988	Filippo Maria Gambari, Giovanni Colonna, "Il bicchiere con iscrizione arcaica da Castelletto Ticino e l'adozione della scrittura nell'Italia nord-occidentale", Studi Etruschi 54 (1986 [1988]), 119–164.
Gambari 2004	Filippo Maria Gambari, "I signori del commercio sulle vie d'acqua. Il ruolo degli scambi nella cultura di Golasecca", in: Franco Marzatico, Paul Gleirscher (eds), Guerrieri, principi ed eroi fra il Danubio e il Po dalla preistoria all'alto medioevo, Trento: Castello del Buonconsiglio 2004, 304–313.
Gambari 2018	Filippo M. Gambari, "Un alfabeto antico per lingue nuove. Le prime attestazioni delle lingue celtiche nelle epigrafi preromane della lombardia occidentale", in: Cristina Miedico (ed.), Le voci degli altri. Linguaggi, parole e alfabeti inconsueti nella Lombardia antica, Angera: 2018, 31–41.