VA·28.1

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	aśoip[
Reading in original script:	]
Variant reading:	]piośa ]
Object:	VA·28 Samarate (bowl) (Inscriptions: VA·28.1, VA·28.2, VA·28.3)
Position:	bottom, outside
Orientation:	180°
Direction of writing:	ambiguous
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	6 cm2.362 in <br />
Number of letters:	5
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched
Condition:	unknown
Archaeological culture:	unknown [from object]
Date of inscription:	late 2nd c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 300 bis Solinas 1995: 115 Morandi 2004: 128 A
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 607 f. 128 A

Images

Inscriptions VA·28.1, VA·28.2 and VA·28.3

Commentary

First published in Bertolone 1931: 43.

Images in Bertolone 1931: 44, fig. 13 (drawing), Morandi 2004: 609, fig. 17.128 (drawing).

Inscribed upside-down on the bottom of the patera near the rim. Judging from Bertolone's confident drawing (the only one made from the original), the inscription seems to be (have been) well legible, though the result of the reading does not inspire confidence, mainly because of alpha and pi being turned in different directions. Whatmough (Addenda p. 630), Solinas and Morandi read sinistroverse aśoip (the latter two without marking the break immediately after pi) with retrograde pi; Stifter 2010: 370 also considers dextroverse )piośa with retrograde alpha – unless alpha is in fact ? This is theoretically possible despite the presumably late dating of the object, if Latin influence is assumed (see A), but cf. also the various other forms of alpha in the other two inscriptions on the object. As pointed out by Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 149, could also be lambda (aśoil[ / ]liośa). None of these sequences finds good comparanda in Celtic inscriptions (see the word pages). Even discounting putative iota and pi/lambda under the assumption that the reading is unreliable, there are hardly any Celtic personal names in ado° or °oda.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Bertolone 1931	Mario Bertolone, "Scoperte archeologiche nell'Agro Gallaratese", Rivista Archeologica dell'Antica Provincia e Diocesi di Como. Antichità ed Arte 102–104 (1931), 23–52.