CO·48

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Inscription
Proper name:	Inscription of Prestino
Reading in transliteration:	uvamokozis : plialeθu : uvltiauiopos : ariuonepos : siteś : tetu
Reading in original script:
Object:	CO·48 Prestino (slab)
Position:	front
Orientation:	0°
Frame:	(left: feet, middle: top and bottom, right: feet)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	5 cm1.969 in <br />
Number of letters:	49
Number of words:	6
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca III A 1 [from object]
Date of inscription:	second quarter of the 5th c. BC [from object]
Type:	dedicatory
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'Uvamokozis Plialeθu dedicated the seats (?) to the Uvltiauioi and the Ariuones'
Alternative sigla:	Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 23 Solinas 1995: 65 Motta 2000: 2 Morandi 2004: 180
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 638–640

Images

Drawing of inscription CO·48 from Gambari & Colonna 1988	Slab CO·48 Prestino with inscription CO·48 from Lejeune 1971	Drawing of inscription CO·48 from Morandi 2004	First half of inscription CO·48 from Morandi 2004	Second half of inscription CO·48 from Morandi 2004
Slab CO·48 Prestino with inscription CO·48 from Tibiletti Bruno 1966b	First part of inscription CO·48 from Tibiletti Bruno 1966b	Middle part of inscription CO·48 from Tibiletti Bruno 1966b	Last part of inscription CO·48 from Tibiletti Bruno 1966b	Drawing of inscription CO·48 from Tibiletti Bruno 1966b
Detail of inscription CO·48 from Tibiletti Bruno 1969b	Detail of inscription CO·48 from Tibiletti Bruno 1969b

Commentary

First published in Tibiletti Bruno 1966b.

Images in Società Archeologica Comense 1966: tav. LXXXIV (drawing by Rittatore Vonwiller, cf. Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 351 with n. 40), Mirabella Roberti 1966: 115 (photo in situ), Tibiletti Bruno 1966b: 289, fig. 1 (photo in situ), 290, fig. 2 (photo of first part), 291, fig. 3 (photo of middle part) and 4 (photo of last part), 293, fig. 5 and 6 (drawing), 294, fig. 7 (detail photo), 295, fig. 8 (detail photo) and 9 (detail photo = Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 354), Lejeune 1971: 98, pl. XII (photo provided by the Istituto di Studi Etruschi), Morandi 1982: 188 (drawing) and tav. XLI.1 (photo).

Inscribed in neat and evenly spaced letters along the narrow side of the slab, between two frame lines which end in "feet" reminiscent of VA·6 Vergiate and the pala-stelae. Words separated by separators of three dots. Grooves of letters filled with talcum soon after the discovery (Tibiletti Bruno 1966b, 281, n. 5); two casts, one of paper and one of plastic (Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 350, n. 36, Tibiletti Bruno 1968: 386). 283 f. comparison with CO·21. Detailed description of letters in Tibiletti Bruno 1966b: 291–296, who read the third letter of the third word as iota rather than lambda, alleging that the bar is an unintentional mark. Horizontal bars of zeta stylistic in agreement with form of tau (also Tibiletti Bruno 1969b: 234, Prosdocimi 1967: 201). Alphabet classification 296–300; 300 dating to 2^nd c. BC, viz. between Lepontic in the 3^rd c. and the Gaulish monuments of the 1^st c.; theta as an extra letter to denote a lenited sound; 301 syntactic analysis as nominative subject uvamokozis plialeθu, dative objects uvltiauiopos ariuonepos, accusative object siteś, and finite verb tetu.

• Mirabella Roberti 1966: lambda rather than iota, but rho rather than pi; has measurements and details about the execution
• Prosdocimi 1967 works with double-wrong third word uvitiauioros with rho according to the drawing in Società Archeologica Comense 1966. Functions of theta and waw 201-203; san ^= sigma; distribution of theta and tau looks like Padova alphabet; 206 ff. difficulties with syntactic analysis due to misreading of third word, takes plialeθu for a verb. 205, 219-222 linguistic classification, Celtic features of the language (not quite Gaulish, so speaks for the existence of a Lepontic which is "non antigallica").
• Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 350–355 defends her reading of iota and pi (and trashes Ferri)
• Tibiletti Bruno 1968: 386–388 again pro pi, 389 on sound values, differences from Venetic (kappa for /g/)
• Pellegrini 1969: 251 f.
• Tibiletti Bruno 1969b: 232–234, no. 77: more literature, linguistic classification
• Lejeune 1971: 96–111, reads uvltiauiopos without discussion of TB's argument, waw zeta theta not necessarily foreign letters, but revived by reformators (uncertain about dating, but implicitly assumes lateish as per TB), pi tau kappa = /b/ /d/ /g/ (as per Prosdocimi), theta = /t/, different spelling for "sifflante forte" < *st (zeta) and <*ns (san) (as per TB), <uv> = initial labial glide, uvlti "dévocalisée" for unclear reasons, doubts connection with Padova orthography with same arguments as TB (spelling of mediae), same overall analysis as TB, 106-110 siteś as Lepontic
• Lejeune 1974: 343
• Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 141 f. "forse un architrave", sticks with reading iota
• Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 177–181, no. 23 frame shape developed out of anthropomorphic frames when significance was not understood anymore (also Morandi 1982: 188), n. 3 again pro iota (now she knows who did it)
• Pellegrini 1981: 58
• Motta 1983
• Prosdocimi 1986: 226-232 overview of previous scholarship, 232 higher dating (at least first half of 5^th c. BC), lambda misspelled for iota

• Prosdocimi 1987: 567–574
• De Marinis & Motta 1991: 19, n. 2
• Motta 1992: 313 f.
• Lambert 1994: 21
• Solinas 1995: 343–345, no. 65
• Meid 1996: 260
• Eska 1998c: 66–68
• Meid 1999: 16 f.
• Motta 2000: 197, n. 2
• Markey & Mees 2003
• Morandi 2004: 638–640, no. 180, fig. 22.180 & 801 (tav. XXIV.180)
• De Bernardo Stempel 2005: 189 f.
• Eska & Mercado 2005: 177 f.
• Mees 2008
• (Olivieri 1931: 71)

See also Ferri 1967 (negligible), Campanile 1968 (sdegnato), Lejeune 1978: 111, Morandi 1982: 188 f., n. 69 (summary of previous readings and analyses), Pellegrini 1983: 36 f.

Bibliography

Campanile 1968	Enrico Campanile, "Su due interpretazioni della iscrizione di Prestino", Studi e Saggi Linguistici 8 (1968), 207–213.
De Bernardo Stempel 1990	Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel, "Einige Beobachtungen zu indogermanischem /w/ im Keltischen", in: Ann T. E. Matonis, Daniel Frederick Melia, Celtic language, Celtic culture. Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp, Van Nuys: Ford & Bailie 1990, 26-46.
De Bernardo Stempel 2014	Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, "Livelli di celticità linguistica nell'Italia settentrionale", in: Philippe Barral, Jean-Paul Guillaumet, Marie-Jeanne Roulière-Lambert, Massimo Saracino, Daniele Vitali (eds), Les Celtes et le Nord de l'Italie. Premier er Second Âges du fer. Actes du XXXVIe colloque international de l'AFEAF, Vérone, 17–20 mai 2012 [= Revue Archéologique de l'Est Suppl. 36], Dijon: 2014, 89–102.
De Hoz 1992	Javier de Hoz, "Lepontic, Celt-Iberian, Gaulish and the archaeological evidence", Études celtiques 29 (1992), 223–240.
De Simone 1978	Carlo De Simone, "I Galli in Italia: testimonianze linguistiche", in: Paola Santoro (ed.), I Galli e l'Italia, Roma: De Luca 1978, 261–269.
De Simone 1988	Carlo de Simone, "Iscrizioni messapiche della Grotta della Poesia (Melendugno, Lecce)", Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di lettere e filosofia 18 (1988), 325–415.
Dupraz 2015	Emmanuel Dupraz, "Nochmals zum lepontischen Digraphen uv-", Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 69,1 (2015), 33–50.
Eska & Mercado 2005	Joseph Francis Eska, Angelo O. Mercado, "Observations on verbal art in ancient Vergiate", Historische Sprachforschung 118 (2005), 160-184.
Eska 1998c	Josef Francis Eska, "PIE *p (doesn't become) Ø in proto Celtic", Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 58 (1998), 63-80.
Eska 2013	Joseph F. Eska, "A salvage grammar of Galatian", Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 60 (2013), 51–63.
Eska 2013b	Joseph F. Eska, "In defense of Celtic /φ/", in: Adam I. Cooper, Jeremy Rau, Michael Weiss, Multi nominis grammaticus. Studies in classical and Indo-European linguistics in honor of Alan J. Nussbaum on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, Ann Arbor: Beech Stave Press 2013, 32–43.
Eska 2024d	Joseph F. Eska, "Digamma and Prestino and related matters", Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 71/1 (2024), 77–96.
ET²	Gerhard Meiser, Etruskische Texte. Editio minor, auf Grundlage der Erstausgabe von †Helmut Rix neu bearbeitet in Zusammenarbeit mit Valentina Belfiore und Sindy Kluge. Teil 1: Einleitung, Konkordanz, Indizes, Teil 2: Texte, 2nd, revised edition [= Studien zur historisch-vergleichenden Sprachwissenschaft 4], Hamburg: Baar 2014.
Ferri 1967	Silvio Ferri, "Esigenze archeologiche - VIII", Studi Classici e Orientali 16 (1967), 417–435.