NO·20

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]?ọ[ / ]ṭọ[ ]ịkṇọṣ / ṃatopokios / sola / nimoniknạ
Reading in original script:	]?[ ][   ]
Object:	NO·20 Cureggio (stela)
Position:	front
Frame:	(left: straight double, middle: all, right: straight double)
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
adapted to:	Latin script
Letter height:	10–11 cm3.937 in <br />4.331 in <br />
Number of letters:	32
Number of words:	5
Number of lines:	5
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	unknown [from object]
Date of inscription:	1st c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'... son of ?, Matopokios, Sola daughter of Nimu/Nimon(i)os'
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 123 Morandi 2004: 96
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 584 no. 96

Images

Fragment NO·20 Cureggio with inscription NO·20 from Morandi 2004

Fragment NO·20 Cureggio with inscription NO·20

Commentary

First published in Gambari 1991. Examined for LexLep on 24^th April 2024.

Images in Gambari 1984: tav. LXXXV A (photo of two fragments), Gambari 1991: 230, fig. 1 (drawing = Motta 1995: 127, fig. 1) and 231, fig. 2 (photo), Morandi 2004: tav. XII.96 (photo), Stifter 2020: 28, fig. 18 (photo).

Inscribed dextroverse and horizontally between frame lines which also separate the lines, and are doubled on both sides. Five lines are preserved. In line 1 at the upper tip of the fragment, only part of the left-hand side curve of and, before it, the tip of a line in the lower area are preserved. In line 2, a similar situation, but with complete, if damaged and before it a longer trace which may be part of as in the line below. After the damaged section, which may have contained two letters, the very lowest tip of followed by completely preserved and , which are damaged in the upper area, but unambiguous. Lines 3–5 are almost completely preserved and hardly damaged. In line 3, the initial letter is identified as , damaged on top, by Gambari 1991: 229. Motta 1995: 128, who could only make out the lower part of the righ-hand side hasta, also considers iota , but a trace of the left-hand side hasta is faintly visible; a broader letter than iota is also more likely with regard to the very regular spacing of the letters within the frame. The bars of putative as partly reflected in Gambari's drawing are not in fact visible, but is the best reading option. , of which the bar and lower tip of the hasta are visible, is disturbed by the vertical break line, which also runs through the last two lines without creating any problems for the reading. In line 5, the lower part of final is missing. Line 5 is the last of the inscription, but any number of lines may be missing at the beginning.

The alphabet is the Lepontic one, but mu has a shape influenced by Latin and the shape of sigma is more rounded than usual, indicating a fairly late dating of the inscription to the 1^st century BC (cf. Gambari 1991: 232 f., Motta 1992: 317). Motta 1995: 129 considers the possibility that is a variant of san, but see Ś.

Each preserved line contains one individual name or patronym. With its list of personal names in the nominative, the inscription can be compared to other late Cisalpine Celtic documents from the northern Novara province (NO·19, NO·21.1, also NO·18). Not unlike the situation on the Briona stela, the configuration of the name elements is not quite clear – sola and nimonikna 'Sola, daughter of Nimu/Nimon(i)os' in the last two lines make an obvious name formula, but matopokios in the line above lacks a patronym (unless it belongs with )to( )iknos in line 2, in unusual order, thus Motta 1992: 317). Gambari 1991: 231 tentatively suggests that the inscription names the members of a clan to which Sola belongs (and is thus identified by her patronym), while Matopokios may be her husband, whose filiation was considered irrelevant in this context. Motta 1995: 133 proposes that the name in line 2 is an individual name in -ikno-, and that °iknos and Matopokios are brothers whose plural (or genitival) patronym was written in a line above, as in the Briona inscription (but see there on the order of the names and position of the shared patronyms). matopokios could in principle be a patronym, but this is unlikely with regard to the use of unambiguous -ikn- at least twice in the next, apart from the fact that the interpretation of the form in line 2 as a personal name seems forced.

Gambari 1991: 232 considers the inscription to be related to the religious sphere; uncertain Morandi 2004: 584, who also considers a funerary inscription of a married couple possible (see also Motta 1995: 134 f.).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Gambari 1984	Filippo M. Gambari, "Cureggio. Stele di reimpiego con iscrizione preromana", Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica del Piemonte 3 (1984), 263.
Gambari 1991	Filippo M. Gambari, "La stele di Cureggio: una nuova iscrizione epicorica preromana dal Novarese", Sibrium 21 (1990–1991), 227–237.