NO·28

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	akluśamo / ụalos / leukur / uritu
Reading in original script:	unknown
Object:	NO·28 Dormelletto (slab)
Position:	front, bottom
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
adapted to:	Latin script
Number of letters:	24
Number of lines:	4
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	unknown
Archaeological culture:	La Tène C [from object]
Date of inscription:	second half of 2nd century BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Gambari 2007: 258 f.

Commentary

First published in Gambari 2007: 258 f.

No image is available of the inscription; our reading follows Gambari. According to Gambari 2007: 258, the alphabet is similar to that used in NO·27, including Latinised mu , but with angular omicron and sigma. The text is written in four lines, with lines 2 and 3 separated by a chiselled line. Of initial upsilon in the second line, only the angle at the bottom of the line is left due to a break.

Gambari 2007: 258 f. opts to segment the text into two compound names, each taking up two lines. He interprets the second name as the individual name of the (putative) deceased (leukuru-ritu), and the first name as a patronym in -al- (akluśamou-alos). This analysis has the advantage of providing a patronym for the expected two-part onomastic formula, even if it is irregularly situated in front of the individual name. However, Gambari's segmentation of akluśamoualos does not explain the use of san instead of sigma and leaves an irregular base (see the word page). We prefer to interpret the sequence as a compound individual name akluśamo-u̯alos, separated at a morpheme border. Similarly, the second compound name can be interpreted in a way that puts the morpheme border at the line break: leukur-u̯ritu. See Onomastics for a discussion of name groups which (appear to) lack a patronym.

If our analysis of akluśamoualos is correct, san denotes the cluster /ts/ in this inscription – see Ś for details.

The function of the inscription is unclear; in the absence of datives an interpretation as a funerary inscription is uncertain. Gambari 2011: 27 f. assumes that the stone was a boundary marker.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Gambari 2007	Filippo M. Gambari, "Dormelletto. I documenti epigrafici in celtico cisalpino", Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica del Piemonte 22 (2007), 256–259.
Gambari 2011	Filippo Maria Gambari, "Le pietre dei signori del fiume: il cippo iscritto e le stele del primo periodo della cultura di Golasecca", in: Filippo Maria Gambari, Raffaella Cerri (eds), L'alba della città. Le prime necropoli del centro protourbano di Castelletto Ticino, Novara: 2011, 19–32.