TI·43

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]ọni : kuimitṛui : pạḷạ
Reading in original script:	]
Object:	TI·43 Bioggio (stela)
Position:	front
Orientation:	90°
Frame:	?  (left: unknown, middle: top and bottom, right: head)
Direction of writing:	dextroverse
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Letter height:	4.5–11 cm1.772 in <br />4.331 in <br />
Number of letters:	16
Number of words:	3
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	incomplete
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca III A, La Tène B, La Tène C
Date of inscription:	5th–mid-2rd c. BC
Type:	funerary
Language:	Celtic
Meaning:	'pala for °u Kuimitros'
Alternative sigla:	Morandi 2004: 300
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 717 f. no. 300

Images

Inscription TI·43 )ọni : kuimitrui : pạḷạ

Commentary

First published in Solinas 2002: 484–486, no. 1.

Images in Solinas 2002: 484 (drawing), Morandi 2004: 720, fig. 39.300 (drawing) and 811, tav. XXXIV.300 (photo = (in colour) Wikipedia).

The fragment preserves the latter part of an inscription (length of the remains 100 cm) written running upward between frame lines (12.5 cm distance) which end in a stylised head (two circles?); the bottom end of the frame is not preserved. The state of preservation of the letters deteriotares considerably toward the top. The letters are unequally spaced, with the engraver trying to save space around the sequence itrui, then filling out the rest of the frame comfortably with final pala (cf. Solinas 2002: 484). Reading according to Morandi; partly differently Solinas in the original publication. Omicron, whose second half only is preserved, is located in the lower part of the line, possibly onder the bar(s) of the lost preceding letter? The first upsilon appears in a rare variant with the second line executed as a bar which meets the hasta at ca. a third of its height above the bottom line, cf. TI·35 and maybe TI·37. The bars of mu are executed as two curves attached to the top frame line, but not to each other or the hasta, cf. TI·34.3, TI·30 and again TI·37. The reading of rho is somewhat doubtful. The form of alpha (Solinas: closed, Morandi: open) cannot be gathered from the available images.

The inscription contains the standard text formula of Ticino gravestones with the name of the deceased in the dative (lost on-stem individual name in -oni plus surname in -ūi̯) and pala. The only irregular feature is the formation of the second name not with the usual patronymic suffix -al- (cf. maybe TI·38 uosiu() – considering that kuimitrui finds no comparanda in Gaulish onomastics, the surname may be overall not Celtic. See the word pages for details.

Dating based on the shape of the anthropomorphic frame according to the typology of De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206 (type B or C).

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.