VA·29

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	kat
Reading in original script:
Variant reading:	kai
Object:	VA·29 Gallarate (bowl)
Position:	foot, outside
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	1.8–2.5 cm0.709 in <br />0.984 in <br />
Number of letters:	3
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	La Tène D 1 [from object]
Date of inscription:	125–75 BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	prob. Celtic
Meaning:	abbreviation (?)
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 116 Morandi 2004: 129
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 608 no. 129

Images

Patera VA·29 Gallarate with inscription VA·29

Inscription VA·29

Commentary

First published in Tizzoni 1981: 13, no. 5. Examined for LepLep on 29^th April 2022.

Images in Bertolone 1950: 69, fig. 2.8 (drawing), Tizzoni 1981: tav. 9e, Rapi 2009: 694, fig. 1.1 (drawing).

Three letters inscribed on the foot of the patera (length 2.6 cm). Tizzoni 1981: 13, no. 5 and, following him, Solinas 1995: 370, no. 116 read kai, disregarding a short scratch extending from the left side of the last letter which is reflected in both drawings. Morandi 2004, taking this scratch into account, identifies the third letter as retrograde tau , reading kat. Tau would have a form that is not otherwise attested in Cisalpine Celtic inscriptions (see T), but the scratch is certainly not just surface damage or part of the surface structure of the foot – maybe a slip of the tool? Both sequences are otherwise attested in the corpus and both, when interpreted as abbreviations of personal names, find (potentially) Celtic comparanda; for kai cf. especially VA·27 kaio at Arsago Seprio, also on the foot of a patera.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Bertolone 1950	Mario Bertolone, "Notiziario Archeologico", Rassegna Storica del Seprio 9–10 (1949–1950), 67–77.