MI·10.5

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	ọịe?(?)lụ
Reading in original script:	(?)?
Object:	MI·10 Milano (slab) (Inscriptions: MI·10.1, MI·10.2, MI·10.3, MI·10.4, MI·10.5, MI·10.6, MI·10.7, MI·10.8)
Position:	right-hand side
Orientation:	180°
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script
Letter height:	1.5–2 cm0.591 in <br />0.787 in <br />
Number of letters:	6–7
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	complete, damaged
Archaeological culture:	unknown [from object]
Date of inscription:	unknown [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 104 e Morandi 2004: 140 e
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 615–617 no. 140 e

Images

Composite image of MI·10 Milano with highlighted letters according to Zavaroni	Composite image of MI·10 Milano and its eight inscriptions	Slab MI·10 Milano with eight inscriptions from Zavaroni et al.	Inscriptions MI·10.2 and MI·10.5 on a cast of the slab	Inscription MI·10.5 on a cast of the slab
Inscriptions on MI·10 Milano from Morandi	Slab MI·10 Milano with eight inscriptions from Morandi	Detail of MI·10 Milano with inscriptions MI·10.1, MI·10.2, MI·10.3, MI·10.4, MI·10.5, MI·10.6 and part of MI·10.7 from Morandi	Inscriptions on MI·10 Milano from Tibiletti Bruno (mirrored)

Commentary

First published in Tibiletti Bruno 1986: 106. Examined for LexLep (on the original and on the cast) on 26^th April 2022.

Images in Tibiletti Bruno 1986: 100, fig. 1 (photo of a cast) and fig. 2 (drawing of the inscription as on the cast, hence retrograde = Solinas 1995: 365; mirrored in LexLep for easier comparison with the other images), Morandi 2004: 621, fig. 19.140a (drawing) and tav. XXI.140 a, c (photos), Zavaroni et al. 2014: 281, fig. 2 (drawing) and 290, fig. 4 (photo of the additional letters). The composite photos were made during the autopsy for Zavaroni et al. 2014 and were kindly provided by Alberto Zavaroni; the tracing of letters reflects the readings in that publication. Our photo is of the inscription on the cast kept by the Soprintendenza Milano.

Inscribed lengthwise above the latter part of MI·10.2 (length 6.5 cm). Epsilon is the best legible letter and indicates the direction in which the inscription must be read; based on the execution of the incised lines, we agree with Tibiletti Bruno that the inscription is inverted with regard to the slab's orientation in the wall, like MI·10.2, and thus sinistroverse. Putative omicron is not closed at the top. Putative iota features a short bar on the right and another on top. Following epsilon are two vertical scratches, the first only slightly, the second more pronouncedly bent. Tibiletti Bruno suggests either a single letter pi (with long second bar), which is not typical for the Lepontic alphabet, but would match inverted lambda (also in MI·10.1), or two letters iota and sigma (both implausible). The next letter looks like inverted lambda , which would go with pi, unlike putative final non-inverted upsilon . Tibiletti Bruno's reading is not vetoed by Morandi (oieplu), but does not – as Tibiletti Bruno herself concedes – seem quite plausible. See also Zavaroni et al. 2014: 288, no. 3 (ole ulu).

Between MI·10.2 and the final letter of the present inscription, two larger, but more faintly engraved letters can be made out: (or inverted ) ru, part of the curve of rho coinciding with the lower bar of alpha in MI·10.2. See also Zavaroni et al. 2014: 289, no. 4b (uruθ in ligature).

Corinna Salomon