Neg B
| Transliteration | harigasti teiva |
|---|---|
| Object | bronze helmet |
| Script | Venetoid North Italic script |
| Language | Germanic |
| Writing direction | sinistroverse |
| Technique | incised |
| Condition | non-fragmentary |
| Findspot | Ženjak |
| Archaeological context | open-air burial site |
| Archaeological culture | to be inserted |
| Date | 4th-3rd c. BC |
Original text
Commentary
The harigast inscription, written in the northern Italian alphabet (see further for more details), faces downwards and clockwise; it was evidently carved by a skilled hand with a fine, pointed object, and not too deep. The state of preservation of the engravings is excellent. In the area of the inscription, there is a crack on the edge that separates the sign no. 12 <i> into two parts which do not exactly fit together and therefore probably appeared only after the text was annexed. Missing word punctuation; the string of letters is loose, the spacing between characters varies slightly, individual letters are not always perfectly straight. Some characters (e.g. numbers 3, 6, 14) have fine multiple engravings to enhance the letterforms. The overall impression is that he was a skilled writer who went about his work with confidence and reasonable accuracy, but not too meticulously.
Between the production of helmet B (first half of the 5th century BC) and its deposit in the Ženjak-Negova depot (probably the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 1st century BC) there were hundreds of years; it is difficult to give a concise answer when the inscription was attached.
A problem that has not yet been fully addressed, however, is the status of the three slashes and two consecutive characters at the end of the inscription; this issue has not been comprehensively addressed in older research. It could be assumed that the oblique position of the three dashes serves to emphasize the text, for example as a numeral, but this interpretation must be abandoned for chronological reasons.
It can be argued with some certainty that it is a text in the Venetian alphabet <harigastiteiva> - or perhaps, but somewhat less likely, a Magrè-Rhetic <harixasti-teiva'.
Firstly, the phonetically shifted sound /h/ in the first segment <hari>, which etymologically derives from Proto-Germanic *Harja-, Goth. harjis m. "army" etc. (< idg. *korio-) is difficult to distinguish; the following textual notes also find convincing etymological connections in Germanic. Really viable alternatives, ie. interpretations from other Indo-germanic languages are barely visible. Since the <hari> of the Negau inscription is difficult to interpret as a simplex, it is usual for the compound <harigasti> to be extracted from the scriptio continua without much effort, followed by another complex <teivas>. This textual segmentation is all the more recommended because both the last part of this compound and the third sequence separated from it, a simplex, can apparently be easily combined with known Germanic linguistic material: <-gasti> in ptgerm. *gasti- (Goth. gasts m. foreigner [guest]" etc.) : idg. *g" osti-> ven. Host (2, <ho.s.Jhavo.s.> Pa 7), <teiva> in ptgerm. *teiwa-> *twa- (oldisl. tívar Pl. 'gods'): idg. deino- > ven. deivos probably Akk. Pl.
The second complex of the inscription <teiva> shows - whether it should be understood as a (god's) name or as an appellative (cf. oldisl. Týr m. [< jara. *fiwaR] God's name: tívar PL. [< *twoR] 'gods' ) – Germanicity both in the root consonantism and in the outcome. This is also confirmed by the Venetian etymon deivos (<le.i.vo.s.> probably Akk. PL.). It would be hard to think of a Venetian form (-a as nominative Sg. f.ā stem: 'goddess'). From the morphology of the Proto-Germanic noun, at least for the outcome of the masculine noun, <teiva>, there is another example: the accusative Sg. ptgerm. *-d" (< idg. *-om), attested in Proto-Norse runic inscriptions from the mid-4th century.
Harigasti certainly is a Germanic name. In Germanic mythology, there is one figure who is reputed as receiving hosts of (dead) warriours, viz. the Nordic god Óðinn. He bears the epithet Herjann “leader of the troop”, resides in Valhǫll, the vast “hall of the dead (warriours)” with the Einherjar. It is important to remember that the Old Norse texts were written during the High Middle Ages and cannot be understood immedately as describing Germanic religious thinking of the migration period. Skaldic poetry attests similar mythologemes for the 10th century, but there is still a gap of a millenium. The West Germanic foklore tradition tells of Woden/Wuotan and his “wild army” (OE Herlaþing, ModE Wild Hunt, German Wilde Jagd). In Germany, this is characteristically well attested in the Odenwald (“Odin’s wood”), a large forest just south of the river Main.
The second word of the inscription is, however, TEIWA and not *Woðunaz (OE Woden, OHG Wuotan, etc.). *Teiwaz, OE Tīȝ, Tīg Tīw, OHG Ziu, ON Týr, etc. clearly is a different god, viz. the Germanic continuant of PIE *dey-w-os = Latin deus, etc. (cf. above). The oldest sources for the religion of the Ancient Germanic peoples are Roman, which understandably (but unfortunately for us) give the names in interpretatio Romana only. They speak of Mercurius, Hercules, Mars and Isis (Tacitus, Germania 9), and know of Mars and Mercurius as having a special relation to warfare (Tacitus, Annals 13, 57, 2). So, we do not know if *Teiwaz, at the beginning of Germanic culture, was a simple appelative for a “shining” divine being,64 or the “god” par excellence, perhaps even the “father of gods and men” (in the Homeric sense). It might also be, however, that *Woðunaz (who seems to be a genuine Germanic figure, without any Proto-Indo-European forerunner) had already gained supremacy (as attested in the Nordic sources) in Protogermanic times, but there are no arguments available for it in the sources.
Bibliography
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Guštin, Mitja (2019). Zu den alpinen Negauer Helmen aus Reutte (Tirol) und Nesactium (Istrien). Mit einem Beitrag von Kristina Mihovilić. In: H. Baitinger, M. Schönfelder (eds.), Hallstatt und Italien. Festschrift für Markus Egg (Monographien des RGZM, Band 154). Mainz : Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, pp. 380–381.
Guštin, Mitja (2004). Zu den alpinen negauer Helmen aur Reutte (Tirol) und Nasactium (Istrien). Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft, pp. 189-197.
Nedoma, Robert (1995). Die Inschrift auf dem Helm B von Negau. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Deutung norditalischer epigraphischer Denkmäler. Wien: Fassbaender.
