TI·5

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	arimai
Reading in original script:
Variant reading:	ariśai
Object:	TI·5 Giubiasco (plate)
Position:	bottom, outside
Orientation:	180°
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	1.3–1.9 cm0.512 in <br />0.748 in <br />
Number of letters:	6
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete, damaged
Archaeological culture:	La Tène D [from object]
Date of inscription:	150–25 BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'to/for Arima' (?)
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 262 Solinas 1995: 11 Morandi 2004: 6
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 522 no. 6

Images

Plate TI·5 Giubiasco with inscription TI·5 from Morandi 1999

Inscription TI·5 from Morandi 2004

Plate TI·5 Giubiasco with inscription TI·5

Inscription TI·5

Commentary

First published in Herbig 1906: 191, no. 8. Examined for LexLep on 20^th July 2021.

Images in Herbig 1906: 191, no. 8 (drawing), Rhŷs 1913: tav. III (photo), Morandi 1999: 162, no. 2 (drawing) and pl. III.1 (photo), Morandi 2004: 525, fig. 8.6 (drawing).

Inscribed upside-down on the bottom of the patera (length 5 cm). The letters are untidy, the scratches are rendered faint by surface damage and partly disturbed by a crack; the reading is accordingly difficult and uncertain. Herbig proposed aśimei, Rhŷs 1913: 27 f., no. 5 suggested axim(i)ai (cf. Crivelli 1943: 53 aximei), Whatmough 1933: 78, no. 262 erimia·i·, all with reservations and descriptions of the letters. Without further discussions of the forms, Solinas 1995: 324, n. 11 opts for arimiai, Morandi 1999: 162, no. 4 (also 2004) for ariśai. Cf. also Tibiletti Bruno 1965b: 567, n. 40; Tibiletti Bruno 1975b: 54; Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 143.

Initial alpha seems clear. The second letter features a superfluous oblique line to form an -like shape, but Whatmough is right in pointing out that a hasta on the right is visible, and that rho is the most likely reading. Iota , again, is clear. Then follows a group of scratches as shown in the drawing, some of which must be superfluous. A reading as Latinoid mu or san disregards the short scratches in the middle. Solinas' arimiai appears to assume a wonky North Italic mu with the left hasta as a separate iota, but this is unlikely both because the Lepontic alphabet has mu with four bars, and the left hasta is clearly connected at the top. It is unclear why the otherwise thin line of the crack which damages the letters on top and follows the rightmost bar of (?) looks like it is following a longer scratch all the way to where it partly coincides with the upper bar of the second-to-last letter alpha (hence the inclusion of this section in Morandi's drawing). Perhaps some writing mistake and subsequent corrections have rendered this part of the inscription difficult to interpret; the reading as must be considered uncertain. , which occurs three times in inscriptions (potentially) from Giubiasco (TI·7 amu?, TI·9 remu), is more likely to be Latin mu than a form of san which is otherwise unattested in the Lepontic alphabet (see Ś for a detailed discussion). The second-to-last letter is a smallish alpha ; the trace below the second bar by the hasta which lead Herbig to read epsilon seems to be damage. The final letter, generally read iota, clearly consists of two equally deep scratches, the left one slightly rounded.

With regard to the commonness of dative forms at Giubiasco, a reading with final iota and hence a personal name in the dative arimai seems most plausible, though neither this nor ariśai finds comparanda (see the word pages). Whether the inscription stands in connection with a burial or whether the patera was a secular gift cannot be decided.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Crivelli 1943	Aldo Crivelli, Atlante preistorico e storico della Svizzera Italiana. Vol. 1: Dalle origini alla civiltà romana, Bellinzona: Istituto Editoriale Ticinese 1943.