BG·6

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]ạrt[
Reading in original script:	][
Object:	BG·6 Bergamo (bowl)
Position:	bottom, outside
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	4 cm1.575 in <br />
Number of letters:	3
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	damaged
Archaeological culture:	unknown [from object]
Date of inscription:	mid-4th– late 3rd c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	prob. Celtic
Meaning:	abbreviation (?)
Alternative sigla:	Morandi 2004: 216
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 660 no. 216

Commentary

First published in Morandi 2004: 660, no. 216.

Images in Casini & Motta 2018: 119, fig. 2.4 (photo and drawing).

Of the first letter, only part of the hasta and one bar are left; alpha is the only plausible reading (thus Morandi and Casini & Motta 2018: 120, no. 4). Possibly a manufacturer's mark, and if so, an abbreviation of his name? (See the word page.) The sequence art with the same letter forms is also attested twice on pottery at Fornovo San Giovanni (BG·24, BG·25), but the documents in question are inscribed on the inside on younger objects of black-glazed ware, so that, unless the archaeological datings are imprecise, a connection is not entirely likely.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Casini & Motta 2018	Stefania Casini, Filippo Motta, "Iscrizioni vascolari celtiche a Bergamo", Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 26 (2018), 115–128.