TI·19
| Inscription | |
|---|---|
| Reading in transliteration: | iiu·o·tove |
| Reading in original script: |       
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| Object: | TI·19 Giubiasco (helmet) |
| Position: | outside |
| Orientation: | 90° |
| Direction of writing: | dextroverse |
| Script: | North Italic script (prob. Venetic alphabet) |
| Letter height: | 0.6 cm0.236 in <br /> |
| Number of letters: | 8 |
| Number of words: | 1 |
| Number of lines: | 1 |
| Workmanship: | chased |
| Condition: | complete |
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| Archaeological culture: | La Tène B 2, La Tène C, La Tène D [from object] |
| Date of inscription: | 3rd–1st c. BC [from object] |
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| Type: | unknown |
| Language: | unknown |
| Meaning: | unknown |
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| Alternative sigla: | Motta 2000: 28 Morandi 2004: 20 |
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| Sources: | Morandi 2004: 529 f. no. 20 |
Images
 Inscription TI·19 from Morandi
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 Helmet TI·19 Giubiasco with inscription
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 Inscription TI·19
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Commentary
First published in Herbig 1906: 192, no. 13. Examined for LexLep on 20th July 2021.
Images in Ulrich 1914 II: Taf. LXXXVIb.[without number] (photo), Herbig 1906: 192, no. 13 (drawing), Rhŷs 1913: pl. IV (photo), Egg 1986: Taf. 285 (photo), Morandi 2004: 536, fig. 9.20 (drawing).
Inscribed on the crest (length 3.8 cm). Though small, the letters are well legible. Herbig, very uncertain, suggests (e)lioixo fe(cit), similarly Rhŷs 1913: 30 f. enoixo fe(cit) (Latin alphabet with Etruscan influence). See also Crivelli 1943: 53. Pisani 1964: 287 f., no. 125 separates a locative iiuioi from a verb tove (dove) 'in Iovio [i.e. his sanctuary] dedit'. The Venetic reading with the two shortish scratches before and after omicron as punctuation marks goes back to Whatmough 1933: 81 f., n. XIV, followed by Morandi 2004; see also Motta 2000: 216, no. 28: "in alfabeto non di Lugano (venetico?)". Beside the scratches around omicron, which can hardly be iotas and are correctly placed according to the rules of Venetic syllabic punctuation, features of the inscription which point to a Venetic alphabet are inverted upsilon and the use of waw in this later phase. Further support comes from the typology of the helmet, which was manufactured east of the Adige, i.e. closer to the Venetic area (see the object page). Cf. MN·1 and BS·1 for other instances of syllabic punctuation in the corpus. The helmet may have been inscribed before being brought or traded to the Lepontic area, or have been owned by a person from the east who moved to the Ticino and inscribed it there. Double iota in the beginning appears to denote non-syllabic [i̯].
The second, identical inscription on the rim ("sul bordo della tesa") mentioned by Morandi could not be found during our examination.
Bibliography
| Crivelli 1943 | Aldo Crivelli, Atlante preistorico e storico della Svizzera Italiana. Vol. 1: Dalle origini alla civiltà romana, Bellinzona: Istituto Editoriale Ticinese 1943. |
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| Egg 1986 | Markus Egg, Italische Helme. Studien zu den ältereisenzeitlichen Helmen Italiens und der Alpen. Teil 1: Text, Teil 2: Tafeln, Mainz: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum 1986. |
