TI·2

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	koma
Reading in original script:
Variant reading:	koiśa
Object:	TI·2 Giubiasco (cup)
Position:	bottom, outside
Orientation:	180°
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script
adapted to:	Latin script
Letter height:	1.4–2.9 cm0.551 in <br />1.142 in <br />
Number of letters:	4–5
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Augustan [from object]
Date of inscription:	last quarter of 1st c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'Koma' or 'Koiśa'
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 266 Solinas 1995: 15 Motta 2000: 20 Morandi 2004: 3
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 521 no. 3

Images

Inscription TI·2 from Morandi 1999

Inscription TI·2 from Morandi 2004

Inscription TI·2

Commentary

First published in Herbig 1906: 190, no. 4. Examined for LexLep on 18^th August 2021.

Images in Herbig 1906: 190, no. 4 (drawing), Rhŷs 1913: tav. IV (photo), Crivelli 1973b: tav. 8.8 (drawing), Crivelli 1977: tav. 1 (drawing), Morandi 1999: 161, no. 3 (drawing) and pl. II.2 (photo = Morandi 2004: 728, tav. V.3), Morandi 2004: 525, fig. 8.3 (drawing).

Inscribed upside-down on the bottom of the vessel, taking up its entire breadth (length ca. 8 cm). The first and last letter are clear, though the upper bar of kappa and the second hasta of alpha are scratched twice. In between are rather too many scratches to make a certain reading (cf. Motta 2000: 211, no. 20, who suspects that "una sorta di "legatura"" is involved, and Morandi 1999: 161, no. 3, who observes "una certa esuberanza dei tratti"). Kappa is followed by a character , which looks like phi (cf. Herbig 1906: 190, no. 4, Crivelli 1943: 53), but is probably omicron with a miscarried first attempt at a curved line (cf. Whatmough 1933: 81, no. 266); the two scratches forming the left-side angle are fainter than the others and may well be a half-hearted correction. The following five scratches are usually segmented into iota and butterfly san → koiśa, thus Herbig, Rhŷs 1913: 28, no. 6; Whatmough; Solinas 1995: 326, no. 15; Morandi 1999: 161, no. 3; Morandi 2004. koma with the putative iota as the hasta of mu and a superfluous scratch crossing the bars is suggested by Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 356 (also Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 143; Motta 2000: 211, no. 20; De Marinis & Biaggio Simona 2000 II: 462, no. 533). This reading is linguistically preferable to koiśa (see the word pages); the extra scratch may be another failed attempt, here at the first bar, coming out too horizontal. Three- instead of standard four-bar mu may be due to Latin influence, cf. Latinoid alpha. Rhŷs' alternative suggestion koima with its excellent comparandum koimila must be excluded, as the hastae of are not long enough to allow for a reading as Latin mu with prolonged, crossed bars.

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.
Crivelli 1977	Aldo Crivelli, "La necropoli di Giubiasco", Rivista Archeologica dell'Antica Provincia e Diocesi di Como 159 (1977), 5–98.
De Marinis & Biaggio Simona 2000	Raffaele C. De Marinis, Simonetta Biaggio Simona (eds), I leponti tra mito e realtà. Raccolta di saggi in occasione della mostra Locarno, Castello Visconteo - Casorella, 20 maggio - 3 dicembre 2000, Verbania: Armando Dadò Editore 2000.