TI·35

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]osik[ / ]?uka[
Reading in original script:	][ ]?[
Object:	TI·35 Ponte Capriasca (stela)
Position:	front
Orientation:	270°
Frame:	??  (left: unknown, middle: all, right: unknown)
Direction of writing:	sinistroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	10–11.5 cm3.937 in <br />4.528 in <br />
Number of letters:	7
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:	unknown
Language:	unknown
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Solinas 1995: 20 bis Motta 2000: 9 Morandi 2004: 33
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 539 no. 33

Images

Stela fragment TI·35 Ponte Capriasca (photograph by C. Reguzzi)

Fragment TI·35 Ponte Capriasca with inscription TI·35

Commentary

First published in Tibiletti Bruno 1978: 139 f. Examined for LexLep on 16^th October 2023.

Image in Motta 2000: 204, fig. 8 (photo).

The fragment preserves parts of two lines, viz. probably of two separate inscriptions (length of remains 26 cm and 27 cm, respectively), each written inside frame lines (width 15 cm and 12–13.5 cm, respectively). Whether the frame lines are shared is uncertain, as the surface has sustained considerable damage, but cf. TI·36.1/TI·36.2 and TI·45.1/TI·45.2, where the shorter of a pair of frames is also less wide than the taller one. According to Piana Agostinetti 2004: 156, the inscriptions ran from the bottom toward the top, as usual on pala-stelae; differently Morandi 2004, who assumes that they were horizontal (why?).

Tibiletti Bruno considers both lines to be complete on top, possibly taking an oblique trace in the lower area after kappa in line 1 as the neck of the anthropomorphic frame. In that case, the stela could be classified as type C according to the typology of De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206 – thus Motta 2000: 204, although he, like Morandi 2004, considers both lines to be incomplete also on top (]osik[ / ]iuka[). The trace after kappa in line 1 is reflected as an additional letter in Morandi's reading (]osik?[), but may be unintentional. No traces are visible in the space between alpha in line 2 and the breaking edge, but may be lost to surface damage; Morandi observes that an additional vertical line disturbs alpha, possibly iota to form a feminine dative ending (]?iukạị[). Omicron is damaged on top and rather wonky; Tibiletti Bruno also considers rho possible. In the lower area before omicron, an oblique trace may be the remains of a letter (, , ; if followed by ?). In line 2, upsilon features a very acute angle (cf. TI·43); before it, a hasta from whose middle part extends a bar toward the top right – no letter in the Lepontic alphabet has this shape, hence, presumably, the common reading as iota, discounting the bar. The two sequences, certainly ]osik[, are overall most likely to preserve the middle parts of personal names in the usual formula of a pala-stela; see the word pages for possible comparanda.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

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.