BG·33

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration: pe
Reading in original script: P5 dE9 d

Object: BG·33 Verdello (pitcher)
Position: outside, wall
Orientation:
Direction of writing: dextroverse
Script: unknown
Number of letters: 2
Number of words: 1
Number of lines: 1
Workmanship: scratched after firing
Condition: complete, damaged

Archaeological culture: La Tène D 2 [from object]
Date of inscription: second half of 1st century BC [from object]

Type: unknown
Language: perhaps Celtic
Meaning: abbreviation (?)

Alternative sigla: Morandi 2004: 290

Sources: Morandi 2004: 713 no. 290

Commentary

First published in Morandi 2003: 128, no. 6.

Images in Morandi 2003: 128, fig. 7 (photo) and 129 (drawing).

Inscribed on the wall of the vessel where it is widest. The forms of both letters are unusual: pi has a curved bar, epsilon has straight bars clustered together in the middle of the hasta. Morandi 2003 notes that epsilon possibly has four bars. It is not clear whether the alphabet used here should be classified as North Italic; the letters are not Latin, but Latin influence is likely. The uncommon forms may be the reason for the dating to the Augustan period given in Morandi 2004. Unless the bar of the first letter is merely a slip of the tool, an alternative reading of this letter as lambda, as otherwise possible for pi with the bar on top when the linguistic interpretation of an inscription is uncertain, can be excluded. Possibly an abbreviation of a personal name (Morandi, also 2007: 300, no. 29); see the word page on the other instances of the sequence in the area of Bergamo.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography