CO·47

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	pa
Reading in original script:
Variant reading:	ap
Object:	CO·47 Breccia (bowl)
Position:	foot, outside
Direction of writing:	ambiguous
Script:	prob. North Italic script
Number of letters:	2
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca III A 2 [from object]
Date of inscription:	second half of 5th c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	prob. Celtic
Meaning:	abbreviation (?)
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 278 bis Solinas 1995: 54 Morandi 2004: 179
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 638 no. 179

Images

CO·47 Breccia with inscription CO·47 from Tibiletti Bruno 1969b

Commentary

First published in Baserga 1931: 61.

Images in Baserga 1931: 60, fig. 8 (photo), Tibiletti Bruno 1969b: tav. 28 (photo), De Marinis & Premoli Silva 1969: tav. XXV.8 (drawing).

Two characters inscribed on the outside foot of the bowl. Baserga read la, ditto Whatmough PID: 629, no. 278 bis (Addenda). Tibiletti Bruno 1969b: 235 f., no. 78, observes that, while dextroverse alpha is clear, the sinistroverse letter to its left may be pi as well as lambda or even upsilon , and the order in which the letters should be read is not evident. All the possible short sequences (pa, ap, la, al) except the ones with upsilon (ua, au) are otherwise attested in the corpus; a reading of the left-hand side character as pi is most plausible, since there are no clear cases of inverted lambda or upsilon at Como (cf. CO·66); Solinas and Morandi both consider pa or ua. TB suggests that the letters were intentionally made more similar and arranged symmetrically, which seems quite possible e.g. for an abbreviation which served as a factory mark (cf. the triangular arrangement in CO·39). The patera is marked with the same stamped horses as the beaker with CO·73 alios – possibly stylised al could be the mark of a manufacturer of that name?

Bibliography

Baserga 1931	Giovanni Baserga, "Recenti scoperte in comune di Breccia", Rivista Archeologica dell'Antica Provincia e Diocesi di Como. Antichità ed Arte 102–104 (1931), 53–61.
De Marinis & Premoli Silva 1969	Raffaele De Marinis, Donatella Premoli Silva, "Revisione di vecchi scavi nella necropoli della Ca' Morta", Rivista Archeologica dell'Antica Provincia e Diocesi di Como 150–151 (1968–1969 [1969]), 99–200.