*Is 5

Transliteration	tom.o.i. .a
Object	bronze situla
Script	Venetic alphabet
Language	Venetic
Writing direction	sinistroverse
Technique	embossed
Condition	fragmentary
Findspot	Berlotov rob near Šentviška Gora
Archaeological context	open-air cult site
Archaeological culture	to be inserted
Date	4th-3rd c. BC

Original text

<img id="a2" src="venetianLetters/a2.png"><img id="int1" src="venetianLetters/int1.png"><img id="h3" src="venetianLetters/h3.png"><img id="o1" src="venetianLetters/o1.png"><img id="m1" src="venetianLetters/m1.png"><img id="int1" src="venetianLetters/int1.png"><img id="o1" src="venetianLetters/o1.png"><img id="t2" src="venetianLetters/t2.png">

Commentary

The inscription was discovered on a votive area, where rituals were enacted on a central rock plateau over a period of many centuries. Gradič above Kobarid is the location of a Roman period settlement that extended across the original area of the prehistoric hill-fort.

As far as the type of text is concerned, basically a grave inscription, an owner inscription or a votive inscription in question. The inscription’s meaning is a personal name in the Dative singular. For morphological reasons, according to ‹.i.› to set a word boundary and to determine the sequence 'tomo.i.' as the dative Sg. of a masculine o-stem. As in several inscriptions from Làgole di Calalzo as well as two new finds from Verzegnis and Zuglio, here ‹t› can also be used “unetymologically” for ven. /d/, so that the letter sequence 'tomo.i.' is a Venetian word that produces a word form d/tomoi.

*Is 5 with the shape of its .i. and t is clearly an allochthonous item in the area it is apparent that the geographical factor cannot play any useful role in the affiliation of the individual inscriptions; a list of exclusive and (less importantly) non-exclusive diagnostic palaeographic features that any number of such inscriptions will show is the only methodologically viable route towards a coherent picture of which material one may classify as properly belonging to the Posočje group.

The letters are 6-9mm high and 4-7mm broad; the length of the preserved inscription is 55 mm.

Bibliography

Repanšek, Luka (2022). Posoškovenetski areal v luči novejših epigrafskih najdb / Isonzian Venetic inscriptions in the light of recent finds. Arheološki vestnik 73, pp. 601–615

Mlinar, Miha & Tecco Hvala, Snežana (2022). Poselitvena slika posoške/svetolucijske skupine – nova najdišča in spoznanja / Settlement in the Posočje/Sveta Lucija group – new sites and insights. Arheološki vestnik 73, pp. 397-469.

Laharnar, Boštjan & Turk, Peter (2018). Železnodobne zgodbe s stičišča svetov. Ljubljana: Narodni muzej Slovenije, p. 141.

Eichner, Heiner & Nedoma, Robert (2009). Neue vorrömische Inschriften aus Westslowenien: epigraphische und linguistische Evidenz. – In: G. Tiefengraber, B. Kavur, A. Gaspari (eds.), Keltske študije II. Studies in Celtic Archaeology. Papers in honour of Mitja Guštin, Protohistoire Européenne 11. Montagnac: Éditions Monique Mergoil,  pp. 65–75.

Božič, Dragan, Istenič Janka, Osmuk Nada, Šmit Žiga & Turk Peter (2009). New Pre-Roman Inscriptions from Western Slovenia: The Archaeological Evidence. In: G. Tiefengraber, B. Kavur, A. Gaspari (eds.), Keltske študije II, studies in celtic archaeology, papers in honour of Mitja Guštin, Protohistoire Européenne 11. Montagnac: Éditions Monique Mergoil, pp. 48-62.

Image

Drawing: Ida Murgelj © Narodni muzej Slovenije / National Museum of Slovenia