BS·3.2

edit with form

Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	θomezecuai / obauzanaθina
Reading in original script:
Variant reading:	θomezeclai / obalza naθina (Thurneysen, Eska) : omezecụai / obauzana : ina ( taken as separator, Morandi)
Object:	BS·3 Voltino (stela) (Inscriptions: BS·3.1, BS·3.2)
Position:	front
Orientation:	0°
Frame:	(left: straight, middle: bottom, right: straight)
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	Camunic script
Number of letters:	20–22
Number of lines:	2
Workmanship:	carved, painted
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Augustan [from object]
Date of inscription:	late 1st c. BC–early 1st c. AD [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 249 Morandi 2004: 233 5–6
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 670 f.

Images

Stela BS·3 Voltino with inscriptions BS·3.1 and BS·3.2 from Morandi 2004

Commentary

Image in Morandi 2004: 806, tav. XXIX (photo).

θoMe þeCuai ośau saNaθiNa (Zavaroni),
θome zecAai oBau zanaθina (Schürr) Zavaroni 2008: 18-35, Schürr 2007: 335-345, Eska & Weiss 1996: 289-291 Reading and interpretations ambiguous. Script: Camunic Script (Alphabet of Sondrio), although M and N are neither properly Latin nor Camunic; C is a Latin character; the four a's are of the Lepontic tipe (Zavaroni 2008: 20-23, Schürr 2007: 336, 337-340 cf. De Marinis 1992: 160-161, Tibiletti Bruno 1990: 165, Prosdocimi 1965). In the past this inscription has undergone many interpretation attempts (cf. Zavaroni 2008: 18-19, Schürr 2007: 336-337 for a summary):

• Para-Etruscan: Pauli 1885: 96-97, Lattes 1914b: 476
• Rhetic dialect: Whatmough 1933: 57-59, 549-551, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 218-219, Tibiletti Bruno 1992
• Gaulish/Celtic: Thurneysen 1923: 8-9, Koch 1985, Meid 1989: 17-26, Eska 1989, Hamp 1989

Thurneysen 1923: 8-9, followed by Meid 1989: 17-26, Eska 1989: 106-107, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 218-219 ecc. read "tomezeclai obalzanatina"; segmented by Eska & Weiss 1996 (cp. Eska & Evans 2009: 35) "to=me=declai obalda natina" (transl. "Obalda; (their) dear daughter; set me (the monument) up"; for syntax discussion cf. Zavaroni 2008: 23-24, Eska 1989, Koch 1983: 200-201, Koch 1985: 24-25, Thurneysen 1923: 8-10). This interpretation as Celtic inscription is based on an old reading and the interpretations of θomezecuai (cp. Schürr 2007: 336-337). Zavaroni (2008: 23-31) and Schürr (2007: 341-345) put forward, that it could be a double onomastic formula, once Gaulish-/Latinised and once Camunic/Euganeic, where tetumus = θome, sanadis = zanaθina. For Etruscan parallels see Zavaroni 2008: 23, CIE: 1416, CIE: 890, CIE: 1048. Regarding the possibly determinable, yet poorly known Camunic/Euganeic language see Schürr 2006: 341-342, 345, fn. 17.

• Weisgerber 1931: 154-155 (old reading tomedeclai obalda natina, Thurneysen)
• cf. also Markey & Mees 2004: 74, Eska & Weiss 1996: 289-90, Mees 2003: Stratum and Shadow. A Genealogy of Stratigraphy Theories from the Indo-Euopean West, in Language Contacts in Prehistory: Studies in Stratigraphy, 11-14 ("Etruscoid", "Kelto-Ligurian", "Para-Rhaetic")
  

For the script, cp. also the Latin inscription CIL 5, 4717 (Brixia/Brescia) which has three 'Camunoid' letters at its end.
Further References:

• Lejeune 1971: p. 64, Note 220
• Tibiletti Bruno 1978: pp. 175, 218-219
• Eska 1998c: p. 26

Bibliography

CIE	Carl Pauli, Olof August Danielsson et al. (eds.), Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum. (3 volumes, various parts)
CIL	Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. (17 volumes, various supplements)
De Marinis 1992	Raffaele C. De Marinis, "Il territorio prealpino e alpino tra i Laghi di Como e di Garda dal Bronzo recente alla fine dell'età del Ferro", in: Ingrid R. Metzger, Paul Gleirscher (eds), Die Räter / I Reti, Bozen: Athesia 1992, 145–174.
Eska & Evans 2009	Joseph F. Eska, David Ellis Evans, "Continental Celtic", in: Martin J. Ball, Nicole Müller (eds), The Celtic Languages, 2nd edition, London – New York: Routledge 2009, 28–53.
Eska & Wallace 2011	Joseph F. Eska, Rex E. Wallace, "Script and language at ancient Voltino", Alessandria 5 (2011), 93–113.
Eska & Weiss 1996	Joseph Francis Eska, Michael Weiss, "Segmenting Gaul. tomedeclai", Studia Celtica 30 (1996), 289-292.
Eska 1989	Joseph Francis Eska, "Interpreting the Gaulish inscription of Voltino", Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 36 (1989), 106-107.
Eska 1998c	Josef Francis Eska, "PIE *p (doesn't become) Ø in proto Celtic", Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 58 (1998), 63-80.