TI·32

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]ịṣọṇị : p̣la[
Reading in original script:	][
Variant reading:	]ịṣọṇị : ịla[ ][
Object:	TI·32 Aranno (stela)
Position:	front
Frame:	??  (left: unknown, middle: bottom, right: unknown)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	5–9 cm1.969 in <br />3.543 in <br />
Number of letters:	8
Number of words:	2
Number of lines:	2
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	La Tène B, La Tène C
Date of inscription:	4th–mid-2nd c. BC
Type:	prob. funerary, prob. dedicatory
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'for °su son of Pla° ...' (?)
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 272 c Solinas 1995: 1 C Motta 2000: 8 c Morandi 2004: 30
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 537 no. 30

Images

Drawing of inscription TI·32 from Giussani

Stela fragment TI·32 Aranno with inscription TI·32 from Motta

Commentary

First published in Mommsen 1853: 202 f., no. 5a. Examined for LexLep on 18^th October 2023.

Images in Mommsen 1853: Taf. I.5a (drawings by Pelli = CII: tab. I.1A a and b), Monti 1860: 59, no. 3 (drawing = CII: tab. I.1A c), CII: tab. LVIII.1A (drawing of a cast by Serafino Balestra ~ Pauli 1885: Taf. I.1a), Giussani 1902: 33, fig. 3 (drawing), Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 112 and 118 (photos) and 119 (drawing), Motta 2000: 203, fig. 7 (photo). Photo of a plaster cast, probably from the Museo Civico Lugano, in Motta & Ricci 1908: tav. II. In great detail on the history of the documentation Tibiletti Bruno 1965: 103–105 with footnotes.

The middle part of one line is preserved on the fragment, together with the frame line below the letters (length of remains 55 cm); the upper frame line may be visible at 10 cm distance from the lower one, though the surface is too damaged to be certain. All letters are damaged in the upper area, either broken off or abraded. Of the first letter after the break, only the lower part of a hasta is left, followed by an angle which can be identified as the lower part of sigma; the hasta is too close to sigma (3 cm as opposed to the 5–8 cm between the other hastae) to be anything other than iota (cf. Whatmough PID, Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 137 ]isoni). Omicron is clearly identifiably in the lower half of a neat circle; much of the hasta and part of the curve replacing the two bars are preserved of nu. (Morandi's ]novi is not possible.) Iota in in principle complete, as is the separator. After the separator follows a hasta whose upper end is missing, lambda and unambiguous alpha. The hasta has been read as iota (in older publications and again by Solinas and Motta 2000: 202 f., no. 8c) or pi (Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 136 f., Morandi). The very tip of the bar of pi may be visible by the breaking edge before lambda, but the egde is too abraded to be certain.

)?soni represents the dative/locative sg. ending of an on-stem individual name (see the word page). The sequence after the separator is likely to be the beginning of a patronym – certainly if it is ila(; for pla( Tibiletti Bruno 1997: 1014 f. suggests that pla( could be a misspelling for pala (also PID: 553, Motta 2000: 203), but such an emendation seems unnecessary when we would rather expect a patronym in any case (cf. TI·29).

Dating according to De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206, who tentatively classify the document as their type C although the execution of the ends of the frames is unknown (but cf. TI·30).

See also Monti 1860: 59, CII: iii, no. 1a, Addenda et Corrigenda, c.2033, Pauli 1885: 8, no. 13a, 70–74, Giussani 1902: 33 f., no. 2, Rhŷs 1913: 21–23, no. 7a, Motta & Ricci 1908: 28 f., Tibiletti Bruno 1965, Tibiletti Bruno 1968c: 356, Tibiletti Bruno 1975 passim, Tibiletti Bruno 1990b: 90.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

CII	Ariodante Fabretti, Corpus inscriptionum italicarum antiquioris aevi. Ordine geographico digestum et glossarium italicum, in quo omnia vocabula continentur ex umbricis, sabinis, oscis, volscis, etruscis aliisque monumentis quae supersunt, Augusta Taurinorum: 1867.
De Marinis & Motta 1991	Raffaele C. De Marinis, Filippo Motta, "Una nuova iscrizione lepontica su pietra da Mezzovico (Lugano)", Sibrium 21 (1990–1991), 201–225.
Giussani 1902	A[ntonio] Giussani, "L' iscrizione nord-etrusca di Tesserete e le altre iscrizioni pre-romane del nostro territorio", Rivista Archeologica della Provincia e Antica Diocesi di Como 46 (1902), 25–67.