*Is 7
| Transliteration | voturo.s. vo.l.lk.no.s. |
|---|---|
| Object | silver votive plaque |
| Script | Isonzian Venetic alphabet |
| Language | Venetic |
| Writing direction | dextroverse spiral |
| Technique | embossed |
| Condition | non-fragmentary |
| Findspot | Vrh gradu near Pečine |
| Archaeological context | open-air cult site |
| Archaeological culture | the Sveta Lucija Hallstatt cultural group |
| Date | late 2nd or 1st c. BC |
Original text
Commentary
The object was discovered in what seems to have been an open-air cult site or a sanctuary situated in Vrh gradu, an important archaeological site on the karst plateau known as Šentviška planota, which appears to have functioned as one of the important centres in the hinterland of the Sveta Lucija Hallstatt cultural group. The locality Vrh gradu lies west to the village Pečine at the rocky edge of the plateau itself.
*Is 7 is the only example of a silver votive plaque bearing an inscription found so far. It is rectangular in shape (measuring 3.7 cm × 3.3 cm) and features a rim bordered with embossed dots. In its centre, it is additionally decorated by a ring encircling a dot. The space between the central ring and the dot is damaged by a hole that must have been produced by a nail with which the plaque was attached to a surface, probably originally to a tree. The metal is thin (0.1 cm). Between the bordered rim and the central ring, a dextroverse spiral inscription is chased in the Venetic script of the Posočje (also know as the Idrija) type of the Venetic alphabet. The defining characteristics are the shape of the tau (T = Lejeune’s t4) and the strategy of reversing the lambda so that it points opposite to the general direction of the sequence, which seems to have been a more or less systematic way of distinguishing between the lambda and the pi, which would have otherwise coalesced. The inscriptions features a personal name voturo.s., followed by a patronymic vo.l.lk.no.s. in -(i)kno-. The heavy consonant cluster -llk- is erroneously interpunctuated as -.l.lk.- for expected *-.l.l.k.-. The fourth omikron is poorly executed, resembling two parallel lines, which has been erroneously read as ij by Crevatin in 2012. The correct reading was established and defended in Repanšek 2020 and has been adopted since. In the same publication the inscription has been assigned the siglum *Is 7.
Based on several typological parallels the object has been dated to the end of the 2nd or the 1st centuries BC. These are represented by a group of bronze rectangular votive plaques (12 inscriptional) from the sanctuary in Gurina (the upper Gail Valley), datable to the 2nd and 1st c. BC, six bronze votive plaques from the Iron Age sanctuary at Gradič near Kobarid (non-inscriptional), dated to the last decades of the 2nd c. BC or the 1st c. BC, and an additional example from the cult site Colle Mazéit near Verzegnis in Carnia.
The object is kept in the Tolmin Museum (Tolminski muzej), inv. nb. TM 1506.
Bibliography
Mlinar, Miha (2023). Vrh gradu na Šentviški planoti – communicating with the gods. In: D. Pavlovič (ed.), Tweets from the past. Slovenian archaeology through sounds, symbols and first written words. Ljubljana: Narodni muzej Slovenije, pp. 280–283.
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.
Repanšek, Luka (2020). Towards the Interpretation of *Is 7. In: Th. L. Markey, L. Repanšek (eds.), Revisiting Dispersions. Celtic and Germanic ca. 400 BC – ca. 400 AD. Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Conference held at Dolenjski muzej, Novo mesto, Slovenia; October 12 th – 14th, 2018 (Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series 67). Washington D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man, pp. 162–183.
Laharnar, Boštjan & P. Turk (2018). Iron Age stories from the crossroads. Ljubljana: Narodni muzej Slovenije, Fig. 192.
Laharnar, Boštjan & P. Turk (2018). Železnodobne zgodbe s stičišča svetov. Ljubljana: Narodni muzej Slovenije, Fig. 192.
Laharnar, Boštjan & Miha Mlinar (2014). Prazgodovinski srebrni daritveni ploščici s Šentviške planine. Keria 16/1, pp. 9–20.
Mlinar, Miha & Franco Crevatin (2012). Laminetta d’argento con iscrizione venetica proveniente da Vrh gradu sull’altipiano di Šentviška planota in Slovenia occidentale. In: G. Borghello, V. Orioles (eds.), Per Roberto Gusmani: Studi in ricordo, vol. 2: Linguistica storica e teorica I. Udine: Forum, pp. 287–294.
Božič, Dragan (2011). Prazgodovinske najdbe s Tonovcovega gradu in železnodobna kultna mesta v Posočju / Prehistoric finds from Tonovcov grad and Iron Age cult places in Posočje. In: Z. Modrijan, T. Milavec (eds.), Poznoantična utrjena naselbina Tonovcov grad pri Kobaridu, Najdbe / Late Antique fortified settlement Tonovcov grad near Kobarid, Finds (Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae 24), pp. 239–277 (pp. 257–259). Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU.
