VA·3

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]ịunθanaχa
Reading in original script:	Χ4 s[
Object:	VA·3 Sesto Calende (cup)
Position:	bottom, outside
Orientation:	0°
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	unknown
Letter height:	0.9–2.9 cm0.354 in <br />1.142 in <br />
Number of letters:	9
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca I C [from object]
Date of inscription:	second half of 7th c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Morandi 2004: 77
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 572 no. 77

Images

Drawing of VA·3 Sesto Calende with inscription VA·3 from Gambari & Colonna

Inscription VA·3 from Morandi 2004

VA·3 Sesto Calende with inscription VA·3 from Morandi 2004

Fragmentary bowl VA·3 Sesto Calende with inscription VA·3

Initial part of inscription VA·3

Commentary

First published in Bertolone 1946: 15 (n.v.). Examined for LexLep on 27^th January 2022.

Images in Colonna 1981: tav. XXII a (photo), De Marinis 1986b: 60, fig. 22 (drawings = Gambari & Colonna 1988: 140, fig. 11 = Sassatelli 2000: 53, fig. 33 = Verger 2001: 278, fig. 6.2), Binaghi Leva 1992: part 2, fig. 2 (photo = Sassatelli 2000: 51, fig. 32), Morandi 1999: 157 (drawing = Morandi 2004: 576, fig. 13.77 = Morandi 2004b: 82, fig. 3 = Morandi 2017: 375, fig. 7.2) and pl. I.3 (photo = Morandi 2004: tav. XII.77), Banchieri 2003: fig. 145 (drawing [reproduction of the pencil tracing in the museum's record]), Morandi 2004b: 80 (photo = De Marinis 2009: 157, fig. 2), Maras 2014: 77, fig. 1.2 (drawing).

Written on the bottom of the cup; possibly incomplete in the beginning. The first and fifth letters are damaged in the lower part, but the letters, which get larger towards the end, are generally very well legible; there is, however, some uncertainty concerning the damaged initial part. The first two preserved letters seem to sit lower on the theoretical line than the rest of the inscription. Gambari & Colonna 1988: 140 f., n. 96 suggest that nu looks like it was added secondarily, which could account for the misalignment of upsilon and nu. The remains of the first letter are as tall as the second one, making the reading as iota plausible, but lambda cannot be categorically excluded. An oblique scratch right before the first letter, which gives a suspiciously symmetrical aspect to the offset beginning of the inscription, appears in all drawings, but is never adressed. (It is crossed out in the drawing reproduced in Banchieri 2003.) The inscription can hardly start with a cluster nT. The scratch in question is fainter than the others; the black glaze of the surface is still present in some sections, but damaged throughout. The scratch would look unintentional were it not for its suggestive position and the fact that no other scratches like this can be seen on the other parts of the fragment. Its relevance and function remain uncertain.

The ascription of the document to Etruscan goes back to the Etruscologist Bertolomeo Nogara, who was consulted by Bertolone (De Marinis 2009b: 157, Banchieri 2003: 285, no. 85-17, see also Lamboglia 1947: 90). The reading ]iunθanaχa was established, I believe, by Colonna (and confirmed by Bagnasco Gianni 1996: 298 f., no. 292), who considers alphabet and (less confidently) language to be Etruscan (Colonna 1974: 9 with n. 33 ("alfabeto e lingua(?) etrusca"), 1981: 91 with n. 37, 1988: 140 f. with n. 96). In the latter publication (n. 96), Colonna segments ]i unθanaχa or ]iun θanaχa, reading in either case an Etruscan masculine name formula in the nominative, but neither analysis is quite convincing (see the word page). De Marinis 1986b: 60 does not offer an analysis, but suggests that the inscription names an Etruscan merchant who died while at Golasecca (but see more recently De Marinis 2009: 158). Tibiletti Bruno 1970: 381, n. 9 refers to the inscription as "sicuramente etrusca". Binaghi Leva 1992: part 2, p. 2 segments the sequence into a praenomen iunθa and an "apposition" naχa.

Prosdocimi 1991: 148 f. points out that theta and chi in these forms also occur in the archaic Lepontic alphabet, and that it is impossible to determine palaeographically whether the alphabet is Etruscan or Proto-Lepontic (and that this distinction may be futile anyway). The ductus of the inscription is argued to be comparable to that of a number of archaic Etruscan documents from North-Western Italy (Fs 1.2–3, 0.1–4, Li 2.4, as well as JU·1), dated to the late 7^th century, by Verger 2001: 274–380, but superficial similarities like the length of hastae are hardly sufficient to demonstrate a connection. Prosdocimi also tries to argue for a Celtic reading of the sequence, though his Celtic comparanda are negligible. Morandi 2004 (more detailed 1999: 156–158, no. 2, also 2004b: 82, no. 1, 2017: 367 f., no. 2), following Prosdocimi's lead, considers the inscription complete, and argues that it can be analysed as a Celtic compound name, that of the manufacturer or owner of the cup (or the person who made the funerary dedication). Morandi's Celtic comparanda, however, are not compelling either. A different Celtic interpretation was eventually attempted by Colonna 1998: 266. n. 20. (See the word page for details about these analyses.)

The document is of major importance for the discussion of the transmission of the Etruscan alphabet to the Celtic-speaking communities of Northern Italy, but its language, orthography, and consequently the alphabetic classification, as well as its exact historico-cultural context (on which cf. Prosdocimi & Solinas 2017: 349 f.), must at present be considered unclear.

Further literature: De Marinis 1986–1987 I: 84, no. 148, Sassatelli 2000: 53 f., Maras 2014: 73 f., 76.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Bagnasco Gianni 1996	Giovanna Bagnasco Gianni, Oggetti iscritti di epoca orientalizzante in Etruria [= Biblioteca di Studi Etruschi 30], Firenze: Olschki 1996.
Banchieri 2003	Daria Giuseppina Banchieri, Antiche testimonianze del territorio varesino, Azzate: 2003.
Bertolone 1946	Mario Bertolone, "Nuove scoperte archeologiche a Sesto Calende", Rassegna Storica del Seprio 6 (1946), 5–22.
Binaghi Leva 1992	Maria Adelaide Binaghi Leva (ed.), Veteres incolae manentes. Il territorio varesino fra protocelti e romani, Milano: 1992.
Colonna 1974	Giovanni Colonna, "Ricerche sugli Etruschi e sugli Umbri a nord degli Appennini", Studi Etruschi 42 (1974), 3–24.
Colonna 1981	Giovanni Colonna, "L'anforetta con iscrizione etruscha da Bologna", Studi Etruschi 49 (1981), 67–93.
Colonna 1998	Giovanni Colonna, "Etruschi sulla via delle Alpi occidentali", in: Liliana Mercando, Marica Venturino Gambari (eds), Archeologia in Piemonte. Volume I: La preistoria, Torino: Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte 1998, 261–266.
De Marinis 1986b	Raffaele De Marinis, "I commerci dell'Etruria con i paesi a nord del Po dal IX al VI secolo a.C.", in: Raffaele De Marinis (ed.), Gli Etruschi a nord del Po. Mantova Palazzo Ducale - Galleria dell'Estivale, 21 settembre - 12 gennaio 1987, Mantova: 1986–1987. (catalogo della mostra, 2 volumes: vol. I 1986, vol. II 1987), I 52–80.
De Marinis 1986–1987	Raffaele De Marinis (ed.), Gli Etruschi a nord del Po. Mantova Palazzo Ducale - Galleria dell'Estivale, 21 settembre - 12 gennaio 1987, Mantova: 1986–1987. (catalogo della mostra, 2 volumes: vol. I 1986, vol. II 1987)
De Marinis 2009	Raffaele C. de Marinis, "Sesto Calende, loc. Cascina Presualdo: coppa con iscrizione", in: Raffaele C. de Marinis, Serena Massa, Maddalena Pizzo (eds), Alle origini di Varese e del suo territorio. Le collezioni del sistema archeologico provinciale [= Bibliotheca Archaeologica 44], Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider 2009, 157–159.
De Marinis 2009b	Raffaele C. de Marinis, "Presualdo, Rastrel Rosso e Brivio (Sesto Calende), tombe del Golasecca I e II", in: Raffaele C. de Marinis, Serena Massa, Maddalena Pizzo (eds), Alle origini di Varese e del suo territorio. Le collezioni del sistema archeologico provinciale [= Bibliotheca Archaeologica 44], Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider 2009, 416–430.
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.