TI·34.3

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]rkomui : pal[
Reading in original script:	][
Object:	TI·34 Capriasca (stela) (Inscriptions: TI·34.1, TI·34.2, TI·34.3)
Position:	front
Orientation:	270°
Frame:	??  (left: unknown, middle: top and bottom, right: unknown)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	15–16 cm5.906 in <br />6.299 in <br />
Number of letters:	10
Number of words:	2
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:	funerary
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'pala for °rkomos'
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 268 c Solinas 1995: 27 Bc Motta 2000: 5 B Morandi 2004: 32 Bc
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 538 no. 32 Bc

Images

Inscriptions TI·34.3 (above), TI·34.1 (centre) and TI·34.2 (below) from Giussani

Inscription TI·34.3 from Morandi

Commentary

First published in Giussani 1902: 25–31.

Images in Giussani 1902: 26, fig. 1 (drawing), Rhŷs 1914: tav. Ib (photo), Crivelli 1943: 33, fig. 51 (photo = Tibiletti Bruno 1997: fig. 3), Tibiletti Bruno 1990b: 81 (drawing), De Marinis & Motta 1991: 208, fig. 4 (drawing), Morandi 2004: 536, fig. 9.32B.

The fragment preserved the middle part of an inscription applied between frame lines. The letters are well legible. On the upper end, the stone appears to have broken along the hasta of the final alpha of pala.

Tibiletti Bruno 1970: 374 f. (also 1978: 137 f., 1990b: 89 f., 1997: 1005 f.) argues convincingly that this inscription predates TI·34.1 and TI·34.2: being incomplete on both ends, it was written on the original stela when it was complete, while the inscriptions on the opposite side were applied at a later date on an already fragmentary stone (also Piana Agostinetti 2004: 157; the opposite position in De Marinis & Motta 1991: 218, Motta 2000: 200, no. 5 and Morandi 2004). The full form of the frame is unknown; Tibiletti Bruno expects it to have been a representative of type C of De Marinis & Motta 1991; 206, the model for the simplified frame of TI·34.1.

The inscription appears to name the deceased only by his individual name (see )rkomui; cf. the other inscriptions on this stone and possibly some of the inscriptions from Aranno), unless the patronym followed after pala as in TI·27.1.

See also Motta & Ricci 1908: 28 f., Rhŷs 1913: 15 f., no. 3, Jacobsohn 1927: 31, no. 197a, Tibiletti Bruno 1975: 53.

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.
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.