TI·16

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	rio
Reading in original script:
Object:	TI·16 Giubiasco (bowl)
Position:	foot, outside
Direction of writing:	ambiguous
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Number of letters:	3
Number of words:	1
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	scratched
Condition:	unknown
Archaeological culture:	unknown [from object]
Date of inscription:	unknown [from object]
Type:	unknown
Language:	perhaps Celtic
Meaning:	abbreviation (?)
Alternative sigla:	Morandi 2004: 17
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 528 no. 17

Commentary

First published in Kientz 1943: 765.

Image in Kientz 1943: 765 (drawing = Crivelli 1943: 52, fig. 123).

Kientz, who claims to have seen the inscribed fragment at Bellinzona, but does not identify it, provides a drawing of the letters (iota appears to be damaged) and the reading rio, and compares TI·15. The same drawing is found in Crivelli 1943 without reference to the source; both Kientz and Crivelli (p. 53) consider the inscription to be dextroverse.

The sequence rio could, like riop in TI·15, be an abbreviation of a personal name, but the matter must be considered uncertain until the reading can be verified.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Crivelli 1943	Aldo Crivelli, Atlante preistorico e storico della Svizzera Italiana. Vol. 1: Dalle origini alla civiltà romana, Bellinzona: Istituto Editoriale Ticinese 1943.