TI·29

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]ạniui : p?[ / ]ḳionei : p[ / ]????[
Reading in original script:	]?[ ][ ]????[
Object:	TI·29 Aranno (stela)
Position:	front
Frame:	??  (left: unknown, middle: all, right: unknown)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	9–16 cm3.543 in <br />6.299 in <br />
Number of letters:	18
Number of words:	6
Number of lines:	3
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	La Tène B, La Tène C [from object]
Date of inscription:	4th–mid-2nd c. BC [from object]
Type:	prob. funerary
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'... for °anios P° ... for °kiu P° ...'
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 272 a Solinas 1995: 1 A Motta 2000: 8 a Morandi 2004: 27
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 534 f. no. 27

Images

Drawing of inscription TI·29 from Giussani

Fragment TI·29 Aranno with inscription TI·29

Commentary

First published in Mommsen 1853: 202 f., no. 5d. Examined for LexLep on 18^th October 2023.

Images in Mommsen 1853: Taf. I.5d (drawings by Vittore Pelli = CII: tab. I.1D a and b), Monti 1860: 59, no. 1 (drawing = CII: tab. I.1D c), CII: tab. LVIII.1D (drawing of a cast by Serafino Balestra ~ Oberziner 1883: 172 ~ Pauli 1885: Taf. I.1d ~ Giussani 1902: 33, fig. 3), Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 110 and 117 (photos) and 116 (drawing ~ Tibiletti Bruno 1990b: 81). Photo of a plaster cast, probably from the Museo Civico Lugano, in Motta & Ricci 1908: tav. II. In great detail on the history of the documentation Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 103–105 with footnotes.

The middle parts of three lines are preserved on the fragment, each between frame lines which are shared (cf. TI·34.1/TI·34.2): line 1 length of remains 36 cm, frame width 15–16 cm; line 2 length of remains 35 cm, frame width 10–12 cm, line 3 length of remains 37.5 cm, frame width 6–7 cm. The letters in lines 1 and 2 are damaged, but reasonably well legible, while the ones in line 3 are illegible. While no further letters are really visible above and below the outer frame lines, it cannot be excluded that a fourth line existed below line 3. The decreasing width of the frames suggests that the inscription in line 1 is the primary one; cf. TI·36.1/TI·36.2 and TI·45.1/TI·45.2, where the shorter of a pair of frames is also less wide than the taller one. Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 121 suggests that the inscription in line 3 may have been added at a later date.

Line 1: The remains of what is probably alpha (an oblique hasta and a bar beneath it) can be seen by the breaking edge. The sequence ]niui : p[ is clear; the bars of nu do not form a curve. After pi, the trace of a straight hasta may be made out.
Line 2: Beside the breaking edge two bars which can only belong to kappa. The bars of nu connect in a curve; the bars of epsilon are only slightly oblique.
Line 3: Morandi 2004 reads ]ẹ ịọṇụ[, based presumably on assorted drawings, but no consensus can be drawn from older reading suggestions, nor could any previously proposed letters be confirmed in autopsy.

Considering the similarity of the stone fragments bearing the present inscription and TI·31 (see the object page), they are with some likelyhood part of the same stela. TI·31 ]aḷạ[ may represents the final word pala of the inscription in line 1 of TI·29. Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 115 argues that this cannot be the case since the width of the frame is different, measuring 15.6 cm in line 1 of TI·29 but 14.1 cm in TI·31. According to our measurements, however, the frame of TI·29 line 1 tapers slightly from 16 cm at the bottom end toward 15 cm at the top end, agreeing with a frame width of 15 cm in TI·31. The preserved parts of line 1 would thus amount to ]ạniui : p?[   ]aḷạ[ 'pala for °nios son of P°'.

In lines 1 and 2, the elements before the separators are individual names in the dative (o-stem )aniui, on-stem )kionei, see the word pages for details), followed after the separators by a word beginning in p. p° in both lines could theoretically be pala (thus Motta 2000: 202, no. 8a and Morandi 2004; cf. the three inscriptions on the Tesserete stela with only individual names plus pala), but either or both forms – particularly in line 1, if pala is indeed preserved as TI·31 – can as well be patronyms beginning in ⟨p⟩ (cf. Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 136 f., 1997: 1015) – possibly those of brothers, who would bear the same patronym (Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 137), if the inscriptions in line 1 and 2 are associated (rather than the stone having been reused at a later date). As observed by Rhŷs 1913: 22 f., no. 7d, if )kionei is not a dative of an on-stem, but of an i-stem °kionis, the two people named in lines 1 and 2 could be husband and wife (cf. TI·36.1/TI·36.2).

See also Monti 1860: 59, CII: iii, no. 1d, Addenda et Corrigenda, c.2033, Corssen 1874–1875 I: 946 f., Oberziner 1883: 171 f., Pauli 1885: 8, no. 13d, 70–74, Giussani 1902: 33 f., no. 2, Motta & Ricci 1908: 28 f., Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 356, Tibiletti Bruno 1975 passim, Tibiletti Bruno 1990b: 90.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

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.
Corssen 1874–1875	Paul Wilhelm Corssen, Über die Sprache der Etrusker, Leipzig: Teubner 1874–1875. (2 volumes)
Crivelli 1943	Aldo Crivelli, Atlante preistorico e storico della Svizzera Italiana. Vol. 1: Dalle origini alla civiltà romana, Bellinzona: Istituto Editoriale Ticinese 1943.
De Marinis & Motta 1991	Raffaele C. De Marinis, Filippo Motta, "Una nuova iscrizione lepontica su pietra da Mezzovico (Lugano)", Sibrium 21 (1990–1991), 201–225.
Giussani 1902	A[ntonio] Giussani, "L' iscrizione nord-etrusca di Tesserete e le altre iscrizioni pre-romane del nostro territorio", Rivista Archeologica della Provincia e Antica Diocesi di Como 46 (1902), 25–67.