TI·17

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	triu
Reading in original script:
Variant reading:	494
Object:	TI·17 Giubiasco (bracelet)
Position:	inside
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	unknown
Letter height:	0.5 cm0.197 in <br />
Number of letters:	4
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	chased
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	La Tène D, La Tène C 2, Augustan, Tiberian [from object]
Date of inscription:	2nd c. BC–mid-1st c. AD [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	perhaps Celtic
Meaning:	'Triu' (?)
Alternative sigla:	Morandi 2004: 18
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 528 f. no. 18

Images

Inscription TI·17

Commentary

First published in Herbig 1906: 192, no. 12. Examined for LexLep on 20^th July 2021.

Images in Herbig 1906: 192, no. 12 (drawing), Crivelli 1973b: tav. 8.5 (drawing), Pernet et al. 2006: 233, fig. 6.39 = pl. sub 73.6 (drawing).

Applied in an inside bend of the bracelet. Herbig concedes the possibility of a North Italic alphabetic reading triu, but prefers an interpretation as a Roman numeral (cf. Rhŷs 1913: 30; see also Crivelli 1943: 53) – this would have to be an irregular method of subtractive notation, i.e. a shortened way to write the number 494. Since the Etruscan form of the cipher for 500 is unknown and sometimes assumed to be similar to the Latin one (Wallace 2008: 55), it cannot be excluded that the numeral is Etruscan (or North Italic?). An interpretation as a Latin numeral is also preferred by Whatmough 1933: 81, n. XIII bis, while Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 143 f. reads a personal name triu; undecided Morandi 2004.

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.
Crivelli 1973b	Aldo Crivelli, "Cronologia protostorica della Valpadana dal IV al I sec. a.C.", Rivista Archeologica dell'Antica Provincia e Diocesi di Como 152–155 (1970–1973), 427–474.