MI·5

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	ti
Reading in original script:
Object:	MI·5 Paderno Dugnano (bowl)
Position:	foot, outside
Direction of writing:	ambiguous
Script:	unknown
Letter height:	3.2 cm1.26 in <br />
Number of letters:	1
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:	middle or second half of 1st c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 106
Sources:	Solinas 1995: 366 no. 106

Images

Patera MI·5 Paderno Dugnano with inscription MI·5

Inscription MI·5

Drawing of MI·5 Paderno Dugnano and inscription MI·5 from Tizzoni 1984, reproduced by Solinas 1995

Commentary

First published in Tibiletti Bruno 1984: 123. Examined for LexLep on 27^th April 2022.

Image in Tizzoni 1984: tav. LXXX b (drawing = Solinas 1995: 366, no. 106).

Incised on the foot of the bowl (length 1.9 cm); the two oblique lines overlap with the vertical. The mark is treated as an inscription by Tibiletti Bruno, who reads ti or it, and included by Solinas, but not Morandi 2004. While the sequence ti appears otherwise in the corpus and might be an abbreviation of a personal name, the present inscriptoid is altogether more likely to belong with the ubiquitous cross-shapes which are incised on the outside foot of ceramic vessels in Northern Italy; e.g. on the urn and one beaker from grave 12/1993–94 at Presualdo (drawings Binaghi & Rocca 1999: 440, fig. 2 and 441, fig. 3; cf. VA·4 Sesto Calende) and on similar vessels from that necropolis and the Golasecca culture in general (e.g. De Marinis et al. 2009: 389, fig. 5.2, 407, fig. 1.1, 414, fig. 2.4, 428, fig. 16.1, 433, fig. 2.3, 475, fig. 4.3, 477, fig. 7.3, as well as Sassatelli 2000: 56, fig. 35 on a beaker with two letter-like characters on the neck), and are highly unlikely to be script of any kind, but rather pottery marks or merely decoration.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Binaghi & Rocca 1999	Maria Adelaide Binaghi, Giovanna Rocca, "Sesto Calende (VA), loc. Presualdo", Studi Etruschi 63 (1997 [1999]), 437–447.
De Marinis et al. 2009	Raffaele C. de Marinis, Serena Massa, Maddalena Pizzo (eds), Alle origini di Varese e del suo territorio. Le collezioni del sistema archeologico provinciale [= Bibliotheca Archaeologica 44], Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider 2009.