NO·26

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]ạuśi
Reading in original script:	[
Object:	NO·26 Castelletto sopra Ticino (unidentifiable)
Position:	inside
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script
Number of letters:	4
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca II [from object]
Date of inscription:	6th c. BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	perhaps Celtic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 570

Images

Drawing of inscription NO·26 from Morandi 2004

Commentary

Images in Gambari 2001b: 17, fig. 5 (drawing), Morandi 2004: 576, fig. 13a (drawing).

Inscribed on what appears to be the inside of the lid. Mentioned by Morandi as a sidenote to NO·1, as an example for a gentive form in -ī in an archaic inscription. Morandi cites the reading ]auśi given by Gambari 2001b: 17 without comment, though he examined the object himself; his drawing shows the same emendation as Gambari's of the fragmentary inscription to alauśi, which is interpreted by Gambari as '(sauce made) of alewife' (Gaul. alausa, DLG: 37). Notwithstanding Gambari's remarks concerning the prominence of fish in the diet of the inhabitants of Castelletto sopra Ticino in the 6^th century (p. 14), this interpretation can be discarded for multiple reasons, including, beside the groundlessness of the emendation, the problematic identification of san and its even more problematic equation with s. Stifter 2024b: 134 alternatively reads ]ạumi, apparently with Latinised mu, which is unlikely considering the dating, but the letter in question does not look like Lepontic butterfly san – a proto-form?

Bibliography

DLG	Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, 2nd, revised edition, Paris: Errance 2003.
Gambari 2001b	Filippo Maria Gambari, "Da Castelletto Ticino a Novaria: l'Ovest Ticino in età preromana", in: Filippo Maria Gambari (ed.), La birra e il fiume. Pombia e le vie dell'Ovest Ticino tra VI e V secolo a.C., Torino: 2001, 11–18.