Pa 0.3

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	eluveitie
Reading in original script:
Object:	Pa 0.3 Mantova (bowl)
Position:	inside, wall
Orientation:	0°
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	Etruscan script
Number of letters:	9
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched after firing
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	La Tène B 2 [from object]
Date of inscription:	early 3rd century BC [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	Etruscan
Meaning:	'Eluveitie'
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Vitali & Kaenel 2000: 115–122

Commentary

First published in De Marinis 1989: 40 with n. 37.

Images in De Marinis 1989: 43, fig. 21.6 (drawing = Vitali 1998: fig. 4 = Vitali & Kaenel 2000: 118, fig. 2 = Sassatelli 2003: 240 = Sassatelli 2008: 333, fig. 7 = De Marinis 2005: 74, fig. 17.1), Vitali 1998: fig. 4 (photo = Vitali & Kaenel 2000: 118, fig. 2).

Inscribed on the inside of the bowl along the wall above the foot. The reading is unproblematic; the alphabet used it that of other Etruscan inscriptions from Mantova and Forcello (Pandolfini 1986, De Marinis 2005), indeed the letter forms are exactly the same as those in the alphabetarium from Castellazzo della Garolda (4^th c. BC; De Marinis 2005: 58, fig. 20), inluding epsilon and waw with their hastae not prolonged beneath the lowest bar, waw with the bars far apart, and tau with the bar not crossing the hasta.

The form is an Etruscan name with the typical auslaut -ie of names borrowed from IE i̯o-stems in the vocative (see the word page). The base is Celtic *eluφeitii̯os as in the ethnonym 'Helvetian' (Vitali 1998: 262–264), though we cannot be certain whether the Etruscan attestation is a cognomen/nickname literally meaning 'the Helvetian' (Sassatelli 2003: 240 = Sassatelli 2008: 333), an individual name, or a nomen, and thus whether the person who bore it actually identified as Helvetian and was a speaker of a Celtic language. Cf. kalatiknos for another ethnonym-derived name of similarly uncertain status. The historical background for a Helvetian in Mantova is discussed by Vitali & Kaenel 2000: 115–122.

The inscription was originally given the siglum MN·2 in LexLep, but is now filed under its Etruscan siglum Pa 0.3 after being added to the Etruscan corpus in ET².

Further literature: De Marinis 2005: 75.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

De Marinis 1989	Raffaele De Marinis, "Problemi e prospettive della ricerca protostorica nel mantovano", in: Eros Benedini (ed.), Gli etruschi a nord del Po. Atti del convegno Mantova 4-5 ottobre 1986, Mantova: 1989, 27–47.
De Marinis 2005	Raffaele C. De Marinis, "Le iscrizioni etrusche del Forcello", in: Raffaele C. De Marinis, Marta Rapi (eds), L’abitato etrusco del Forcello di Bagnolo S. Vito (Mantova) – le fasi arcaiche. Volume realizzato in occasione della mostra Gli Etruschi a Nord del Po. Le fasi di età arcaica dell'abitato del Forcello di Bagnolo S. Vito, Bagnolo S. Vito (MN), Villa Riva Berni, 18 febbraio - 20 marzo 2005, Firenze: 2005, 57–76.
ET²	Gerhard Meiser, Etruskische Texte. Editio minor, 2nd, revised edition, Hamburg: Baar 2014.