Li 1.1

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	misuθilarθialmuθikuś
Reading in original script:
Object:	Li 1.1 Busca (stela)
Position:	front
Frame:	(left: straight, middle: top and bottom, right: straight)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	Etruscan script
Number of letters:	20
Number of words:	4
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	unknown [from object]
Date of inscription:	late 6th–early 5th c. BC [from object]
Type:	funerary
Language:	Etruscan
Meaning:	'I (am) the grave of Larθ Muθiku'
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Colonna 1998: 261–264

Images

Stela Li 1.1 Busca with inscription Li 1.1

Commentary

First published in Durandi 1774: 129 f.

Images in Durandi 1774: 130 (drawing), CII: tav. V (drawing), Gambari & Colonna 1988: tav. XLIX (photo), Colonna 1998: 262, fig. 244 (drawing = Sassatelli 2008: 337, fig. 12).

Inscribed on a flattened side of the rough stone, in a horseshoe-shaped frame, which documents the transmission of this Etruscan style from the region of Volterra to the north (Gambari & Colonna 1988: 152, Colonna 1998: 262, cf. VA·6).

The first name is the standard Etruscan praenomen larθ (in the genitive larθial); the second name muθikuś is compared to Gaulish names like moticius by Gambari & Colonna 1988: 154, though they refer to Larθ Muθiku as a Ligurian (also Colonna 1998: 261 "celto-ligure", Sassatelli 2008: 337 f.). IE /o/ is spelled with upsilon in the Etruscan alphabet. See further on the word page.

Colonna 1998: 261–264 suggests that a "Celto-Ligurian" by the name of *motiko lived in the region of Volterra, where he took the Etruscan name larθ, while his Ligurian name functioned as gentilicium. Buried in his putative native country, his Etruscan-style epitaph was written on a local type of monument.

• NRIE: 5
• TLE: 721
• Aigner Foresti 1985: 3-11
• Verger 2001: 279 f. compares letter forms to those in JU·1, 284
• G. Buonamici, Epigraphia Etrusca, Firenze 1932 (pl. 19, 30)

See also Mommsen 1853: 215 f., CII: 7, no. 42 with older literature, Tibiletti Bruno 1968d: 265.

Bibliography

Aigner Foresti 1985	Luciana Aigner-Foresti, "Ein Etrusker im Ausland", in: Ekkehard Weber (Ed.), Römische Geschichte, Altertumskunde und Epigraphik. Festschrift für Artur Betz zur Vollendung seines 80. Lebensjahres [= Archäologisch-epigraphische Studien 1], Wien: Österr. Ges. für Archäologie 1985, 3-11.
CII	Ariodante Fabretti, Corpus inscriptionum italicarum antiquioris aevi. Ordine geographico digestum et glossarium italicum, in quo omnia vocabula continentur ex umbricis, sabinis, oscis, volscis, etruscis aliisque monumentis quae supersunt, Augusta Taurinorum: 1867.
Colonna 1998	Giovanni Colonna, "Etruschi sulla via delle Alpi occidentali", in: Liliana Mercando, Marica Venturino Gambari (eds), Archeologia in Piemonte. Volume I: La preistoria, Torino: Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte 1998, 261–266.
Durandi 1774	Jacopo Durandi, Il Piemonte cispadano antico, ovvero memorie per servire alla notizia del medesimo, e all'intelligenza degli antichi scrittori, diplomi, e documenti, che lo concernono, con varie discussioni di storia, e di critica diplomatica, e con monumenti non più divulgati, Torino: Giambatista Fontana 1774.