MI·16
| Inscription | |
|---|---|
| Reading in transliteration: | uin ?(?)nu |
| Reading in original script: |     ?(?)
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| Object: | MI·16 Canegrate (pitcher) |
| Position: | shoulder, outside |
| Direction of writing: | dextroverse |
| Script: | prob. Latin script |
| Letter height: | 1–2 cm0.394 in <br />0.787 in <br /> |
| Number of letters: | 6 |
| Number of lines: | 1 |
| Workmanship: | scratched after firing |
| Condition: | complete, damaged |
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| Archaeological culture: | Augustan [from object] |
| Date of inscription: | late 1st c. BC [from object] |
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| Type: | unknown |
| Language: | unknown |
| Meaning: | unknown |
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| Alternative sigla: | Morandi 2004: 283 |
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| Sources: | Morandi 2004: 710 no. 283 |
Images
 Olpe MI·16 Canegrate with inscription MI·16
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 Inscription MI·16
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 First part of inscription MI·16
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 Second part of inscription MI·16
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Commentary
First published in Sutermeister 1952: 7. Examined for LexLep on 25th January 2022.
Image in Sutermeister 1952: 10, tav. 4 (drawing).
Inscribed on the shoulder of the olpe (length ca. 7 cm). The first sequence (length 2.4 cm) in Latin letters is unambiguous. After a space of 0.8 cm follows a curious group of scratches which includes a broken circle 
and between the two parts, below the line, a short vertical scratch, as well as, attached on the right, a small rectangle. Then follow nu and upsilon. Faint and unintentional scratches surround the letters.
Sutermeister in the original publication reads two words uin oinus which are reminiscent of the Latin and Greek for 'wine', respectively. Volonté 1993b: 42 agrees, but leaves final sigma (
in Sutermeister's drawing) out of the reading. Morandi believes that the letters form one sequence despite the space. He proposes an interpretative reading VINQHNIVS uincēnius (personal name), in which the circloid + short scratch form qoppa for /k/, and the rectangle is heta used quasi archaically for /ē/. He presumably gets the second iota by interpreting a scratch to the left of the apparent second bar of nu as that bar (see drawing), and the more pronounced bar as an independent letter iota; however, the scratch on the left does not look intentional, and the pronounced scratch is rather too short for iota. We remain agnostic about the reading of the second sequence; the first sequence uin also occurs on its own in NO·12 (also in Latin script). While it is unlikely to be an abbreviation of Latin uinum, it could be an abbreviation of a (Latin or Celtic) name (see the word page).
