CO·69

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	k r?op
Reading in original script:	?
Object:	CO·69 Ossuccio (bowl)
Position:	foot, outside
Direction of writing:	ambiguous
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	1.7–2.8 cm0.669 in <br />1.102 in <br />
Number of letters:	5
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:	perhaps Celtic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 279 Solinas 1995: 64 Morandi 2004: 145
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 618 f.

Images

Drawing of CO·69 Ossuccio with inscription CO·69 from Bertolone 1957

Drawing of inscription CO·69 from Morandi

Drawing of inscription CO·69 from Solinas

Commentary

First published in Giussani 1917-8: 3–14. Examined for LexLep on 1^st April 2025.

Images in Giussani 1917-8: 8 (photo), Bertolone 1957: tav. 38.1 (drawing), De Marinis 1981: tav. 49.2, Solinas 1995: 343 (drawing), Morandi 2004: 621, fig. 19.145 (drawing).

Five letters inscribed on the outside foot of the patera; the reading is unclear due to their misalignment and conflicting orientation. Four letters form a sequence, whose orientation can be deduced from the appearance of the individual lines: ?. The rightmost letter is thus pi rather than lambda, but either it or rho is retrograde. The unidentifiable letter next to rho consists of a hasta plus single descending bar. Kappa is offset to hover above rho at an angle. Three faint, but straight and seemingly intentional lines emanate from the top of the unidentifiable letter and cross kappa in a suspiciously symmetrical manner.

Giussani (acc. to Whatmough) read sinistroverse potrk (in which rho and the offset kappa are retrograde), while Whatmough PID: 97, no. 279 (after autopsy) prefered dextroverse k·riop with retrograde pi on the basis of the comparison with TI·15 k riop. The punct is nonexistent, but the similarity with TI·15 is hard to dismiss, though the latter is considerably younger and has no retrograde letters. De Marinis 1981: 118, no. 2 similarly read k ruop (with inverted upsilon; also Motta 2000: 210). Gambari & Colonna 1988: 163, no. 11, introduced the notion that the sequence was inscribed "in tre gruppi distinti di lettere, scritti rotando il vaso in senso orario", viz. sinistroverse po/k/ru – thus also Solinas; Morandi gives simply pokru. There is, however, nothing in the arrangement of the letters to support such a reading.

The second possible inscription on the rim mentioned by Bertolone 1957: 64 consists in seven scratches arranged at various distances, of unclear function and significance.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Bertolone 1957	Mario Bertolone, "Ancora sulla ceramica del Golasecca III A", Sibrium 3 (1956–1957), 55–71.
De Marinis 1981	Raffaele De Marinis, "Il periodo Golasecca III A in Lombardia", Studi Archeologici 1 (1981), 41–299.