BS·1

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	piuon·ta
Reading in original script:
Object:	BS·1 Coccaglio (cup)
Position:	outside, wall
Orientation:	180°
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	North Italic script
adapted to:	Latin script
Letter height:	2 cm0.787 in <br />
Number of letters:	7
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	La Tène D 2 [from object]
Date of inscription:	1st c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'Piuonta'
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 39 Morandi 2004: 231
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 668 f. no. 231

Images

Inscription BS·1 from Molinari

Inscription BS·1 from Morandi

Commentary

First published in Molinari 1974: 75–77.

Images in Molinari 1974: 76 (drawing), Frontini 1985: tav. 15.8 (drawing = Roncoroni 2014: 140, fig. 8.1), Morandi 2004: 667, fig. 26.231 (drawing), Roncoroni 2014: 169, fig. 7 (photo).

Inscribed with large letters upside-down on the wall of the cup. As discussed by Molinari, the third letter looks like inverted alpha, though the right-hand side hasta coincides with a part of omicron. Molinari compares inverted alpha in Camunic inscriptions, considering the relative vicinity of the find place to the mountains and the Oglio valley, but points out that alpha is written non-inverted at the end of the inscription. The letter is better read upsilon, also with regard to the analysis (see below); Molinari suggests that the writer scratched a new second hasta of above the original one because omicron ended up disturbing the latter, to avoid a misreading of upsilon as lambda. Latin influence can be seen in the forms of nu with a large angle and alpha with two long oblique hastae. Also irregular in Lepontic terms is the spelling of n before t – if the non-spelling in the Lepontic alphabet is regarded as an orthographic rule, this may also be due to Latin influence; if the reasons are regarded as phonetic, the spelling of /n/ may be ad hoc or reflect a dialectal feature (see The Cisalpine Celtic Languages); [nt] is spelled in the Latin-script comparandum bionta (see the word page). The reading usually given in the literature is thus piuonta (Molinari, Solinas, Motta in De Marinis & Motta 2007: 146; Morandi with alternative piaonta), a personal name in the nominative (see the word page). The space between nu and St. Andrew's cross is reflected by De Marinis in De Marinis & Motta 2007: 135, n. 6 (also Roncoroni 2014: 168) piuon ta. Depicted in Molinari's drawing, but not discussed in the literature, is the short vertical scratch situated in the space which is fairly clearly visible in the photo provided by Roncoroni. This separator could be a word divider , but one of this form is only attested (in the context of the Lepontic alphabet) in the Carona petrographs. If the line separates words, piuon could be an abbreviation of a name with the same base as piuonta (cf. BG·18 piuot), while ta would be an abbreviation of unclear significance. This interpretation would do away with the irregular spelling of n before t, but it is rendered unlikely by the excellent comparanda for piuonta (see the word page). It might be considered whether the line is a syllabic punct in Venetic tradition (pi - u̯o - n· - ta); inscriptions in which the punctuated letter is not marked with two, but only one punct following the letter are known from Venetic as well as Raetic (cf. e.g. MA-14 e - si - u - m· - ni - nu - śu - r·), though why Venetic syllabic punctuation should be used in a Celtic inscription from the Brescia area is unclear. Cf. TI·19 and MN·1 for other instances of syllabic punctuation in the corpus.

Bibliography

De Marinis & Motta 2007	Raffaele C. de Marinis, Filippo Motta, "Iscrizioni del II e I secolo a.C. dal territorio insubre e cenomane", in: Francesca Moradini, Marina Volonté (eds), Contributi di archeologia in memoria di Mario Mirabella Roberti. Cavriana 15–16 ottobre 2005 [= Annali Benacensi 13–14], Brescia: 2007, 135–160.
Frontini 1985	Patrizia Frontini, La ceramica a vernice nera nei contesti tombali della Lombardia [= Archeologia dell'Italia Settentrionale 3], Como: 1985.