TI·6

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	χ?r
Reading in original script:	?Χ s
Object:	TI·6 Giubiasco (bowl)
Position:	bottom, outside
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	unknown
Letter height:	1.3 cm0.512 in <br />
Number of letters:	3–4
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	La Tène D 2, Augustan [from object]
Date of inscription:	mid-2nd c. BC–early 1st c. AD [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 264 Solinas 1995: 13 Morandi 2004: 7
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 522 f. no. 7

Images

Inscription TI·6 from Solinas

Bowl TI·6 Giubiasco with inscription TI·6

Inscription TI·6

Commentary

First published in Herbig 1906: 190, no. 6. Examined for LexLep on 1 September 2021.

Images in Herbig 1906: 190, no. 6 (drawing), Rhŷs 1913: tav. IV (photo), Crivelli 1973b: tav. 8.6 (drawing), Solinas 1995: 325, no. 13 (drawing).

Three, possibly four characters, inscribed in a curve near the foot (length 5 cm). The layout suggests an upright reading. Herbig reads χak (also Crivelli 1943: 53), Rhŷs 1913: 28 f., no. 7 wak, Whatmough 1933: 80, no. 264 χna ("at all events, not less likely"); Solinas and Morandi do not offer readings at all. Lejeune 1971: 15, n. 45 proposed upside-down and dextroverse auik, but apart from the counterintuitive orientation, alpha with a straight long bar Χ2 s is not otherwise attested in the Lepontic alphabet.

The visual inspection by David Stifter confirms that the inscription is sinistroverse. The first character is Χ s, the second character is unidentifiable. It could be a ligature of and , with an extra stroke above it, but Latin nu is not excluded either. The third character is Latin rho . All parts of the first two characters are very carefully scratched. The lines of the third character are a tiny bit shallower and less carefully executed, but still none of them looks accidental. The strokes of Χ s are ca. 1.8 cm high, the external strokes of the second character are all 1.3–1.4 cm, as if a square had been intended, but the distance at the bottom is only 0.8 cm. The oblique stroke is 1.7 cm long. The downward strokes of rho are much longer, ca. 2.5 cm, than the other letters and peter out at the end. The thick horizontal middle stroke that is shown in older drawings does not exist.

Corinna Salomon, David Stifter

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.