VN-16

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Inscription
Transliteration: ?aris
Original script: S dI sR2 sA5 s?

Object: VN-16 bone point (bone)
Position:
Orientation:
Script: North Italic script
Direction of writing: sinistroverse
Letter height: 0.90.9 cm <br /> – 1.3 cm
Number of letters: 5 – 6
Number of lines: 1
Craftsmanship: engraved
Current condition: damaged
Date of inscription: last decade of the 2nd–1st centuries BC [from object]
Date derived from: archaeological context, natural science [from object]

Language: Raetic
Meaning: unknown

Alternative sigla: TM 653632

Images

Commentary

Unpublished.

Inscribed on the tapered part of a bone point, running from the drilled hole towards the tip. Length 3 cm. The scratches appearing black on the light bone surface, legibility is impeded by black marks and blots, but S dI sR2 sA5 s is unambiguous. I s is a little shorter than the other letters, S d has a very short lower bar. In the right, more heavily scorched area, a group of scratches seems to make up a variant of Heta with four bars, which is not attested elsewhere in Raetic context. Cp. VN-8 with possibly a name in the genitive χaris (and a similar execution of S d), but note that while the status of Heta/h in Raetic is not quite clear, Chi is assumed to write a velar media rather than a fricative, wherefore Heta would not be an expectable orthographic variant. Another possibile reading is Θ sE s etaris with one of Theta's lines rather straight.

On the reverse side, a neat sequence I sI sI sI sΘ sI sI sI sI s (height 1.2 cm, length 2.6 cm) must be interpreted as decoration.

Bibliography