CO·53

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	aev
Reading in original script:
Object:	CO·53 Prestino (bowl)
Position:	bottom, inside
Orientation:	270°
Frame:	?  (left: unknown, middle: top and bottom, right: none)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Number of letters:	3
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca III A 1 [from object]
Date of inscription:	third quarter of 5th c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	none
Meaning:	'AEV'
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 71 Motta 2000: 15 Morandi 2004: 185
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 641

Images

Drawing of inscription CO·53 from Morandi 2004

Potsherd CO·53 Prestino with inscription CO·53 from Morandi 2004

Drawing of inscription CO·53 from Solinas 1995

Commentary

Images in De Marinis & Motta 1991: 215, fig. 10 (drawing), Solinas 1995: 370 (drawing, incorrectly under no. 118), Morandi 1999: 177 (drawing = Morandi 2004: 642, fig. 22.185) and 201, tav. XIV.1 (photo = Morandi 2004: 802, tav. XXV.185), Stifter 2020: 20, fig. 11 (photo).

Inscribed sinistroverse on the inside of the bowl, running from the bend between rim and bottom toward the centre between two frame lines. Though there is a gap after waw which shows that the sequence aev is complete, the frame lines extend to the breaking edge; it is thus possible that more letters or other elements followed, but the sequence aev must have stood separate from any additional sections. The three letters were interpreted as the beginning of the alphabet by De Marinis et al. 1985: 29 (also De Marinis 1986: 75, no. 3, De Marinis & Motta 1991: 214, no. 6, Morandi 1999: 177, no. 23).

See VA·5 on the mix-up of that document with the present inscription, and CO·54 on the only other Lepontic alphabet inscription found so far. The two pars-pro-toto alphabetaria are somewhat unusual in that they are inscribed on the inside of ceramic vessels (rather than on the outside wall or foot) and written between frame lines, though neither feature is unknown in the ceramic graffiti from the area of ancient Como dated to the same timeframe (inside e.g. CO·55, CO·72, CO·13, the latter also with frame lines). The abbreviated alphabet may have had quasi-decorative or casual apotropaeic function on everyday objects (cf. Casini & Fossati 2013b: 148 "un semplice scopo beneaugurale"). Assuming that writing and thus inscribed objects were considered prestigious, the application of the first three letters of the alphabet may have been a way to up-value an object for a person whose grasp of practical writing was tenuous. It cannot be excluded that the inscriptions represent evidence for writing instruction – could the lines indicate where a student’s repetitions of the letters should go? The repeated attestation of only the first three letters would be a strange coincidence, though; it rather seems to suggest a standardised pars-pro-toto representation of the alphabet. Morandi 1999: 177 argues that the two abbreviated alphabetaria show not only that writing was widespread, but also subject to didactic regulation.

The two inscriptions are interesting also from a graphematic perspective. The letter waw , not strictly necessary in a system in which the function of upsilon could be extended to representing both vowel and glide in analogy to iota, was used only in archaic inscriptions, arguably for the glide (VA·4.1, VA·4.2), and at least once for the reflex of weakened /p/ before its loss (CO·48). It was eventually dropped, leaving alpha to change its shape to upright , equivalent to that of defunct waw. The exact dating of this development is difficult, as waw is very rare and does not appear certainly in language-encoding inscriptions after Prestino (see V); clearly identifiable upright alpha only begins to appear sporadically in the 4^th/3^rd century (see A). The alphabetaria, containing both letters, document the shift: alpha in the older CO·53 appears in a late transition form with one upright hasta and the bar not touching the second hasta, but a long second hasta still reaching the bottom of the line , while the younger CO·54 features alpha with the second hasta turned upper bar (cf. Morandi 2004: 643). Unfortunately the first hasta is not preserved, but it appears that alpha was already homographic with waw – waw would at this stage not have been used in language-encoding inscriptions anymore, but was preserved as a lettre morte in the alphabet row until at least the 5^th/4^th century, which constitutes an additional argument for the interpretation of the sequence as a letter row.

See also Gambari & Colonna 1986: 162, no. 9, Prosdocimi 1990: 297, De Marinis 1991: 14, Motta 2000: 209, no. 15.

Bibliography

Casini & Fossati 2013b	Stefania Casini, Angelo E. Fossati, "L'alfabeto latino inciso sul masso Camisana 1 di Carona (Bergamo)", Notizie Archeologiche Bergomensi 21 (2013), 147–155.
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.
De Marinis 1986	Raffaele De Marinis, "Lingua e alfabeto", in: Various authors, Como fra Etruschi e Celti, Como: Società Archeologica Comense 1986. (Catalogo della mostra), 73–76.
De Marinis 1991	Raffaele Carlo De Marinis, "I Celti Golasecchiani", in: Sabatino Moscati, Otto Hermann Frey, Venceslas Kruta, Barry Raftery, Miklòs Szabò (Eds.), I Celti. Catalogo della mostra di palazzo Grassi, Milano: Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, Bompiani, Sonzogno, Etas 1991, 93-102.
De Marinis et al. 1985	Raffaele De Marinis, Ugo Magri, Marco Marcias, "Como, loc. Prestino. Abitato protostorico", Soprintendenza Archeologica della Lombardia Notiziario (1984 [1985]), 29–31.
Gambari & Colonna 1988	Filippo Maria Gambari, Giovanni Colonna, "Il bicchiere con iscrizione arcaica da Castelletto Ticino e l'adozione della scrittura nell'Italia nord-occidentale", Studi Etruschi 54 (1986 [1988]), 119–164.