Vače
| Transliteration | t'erisna |
|---|---|
| Object | bronze helmet |
| Script | Rhaetic alphabet |
| Language | Rhaetic |
| Writing direction | sinistroverse |
| Technique | embossed |
| Condition | non-fragmentary |
| Findspot | Vače near Litija |
| Archaeological context | to be inserted |
| Archaeological culture | to be inserted |
| Date | second half of the 5th c. BC |
Original text
Commentary
The inscription was embossed on the chamfer using a pointed tool. All the characters are easily legible. The first letter consists of a hasta topped by a circle of eight indentations and an additional single indentation above the circle. The letter has in the past been interpreted as a form of zeta for t (Marstrander 1927: 20 ff., Prosdocimi & Scardigli 1976: 228), as Etruscan f (Kretschmer 1943: 186), or as iota (Schneider 1892: 54, Pellegrini 1969: 50 f., Egg 1986: 228). Mancini (1991) determined it to be a specific sign denoting a dental and concluded the letter to be another variant of the Rhaetic special character for a dental affricate. Schumacher (2004) also argued for a dental reading. This is further supported by a possible Etruscan etymology. Rix (1998) compares Etruscan zeri, which Vetter (1924) translates as "all, everyone". An adjective derived with the genitival suffix -na results in Etr. *zerisna "belonging to everyone, public". This theory is expanded by Heiner Eichner with his interpretation of Lemn. zari[ "for everybody".
The word occurs six other times in the corpus, usually on objects and in inscriptions with a fairly certain votive function and once on another helmet. If the interpretation is correct, it can be speculated that in these two cases, the word denoted helmets belonging to the community, to be dispersed to helmless individuals when needed.
Bibliography
Eichner, Heiner (2011). Anmerkungen zum Etruskischen in memoriam Helmut Rix. Alessandria 5, pp. 67–92.
Schumacher, Stefan (2004). Die rätischen Inschriften. Geschichte und heutiger Stand der Forschung (= Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft 121). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck, pp. 558-560.
Eichner, Heiner, Istenič, Janka & Lovenjak, Milan (1994). Ein römerzeitliches Keramikgefäß aus Ptuj (Pettau, Poetovio) in Slowenien mit Inschrift in unbekanntem Alphabet und epichorischer (vermutlich keltischer) Sprache. Arheološki vestnik 45, pp. 131–142.
Rix, Helmut (1998). Rätisch und Etruskisch (= Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, Vorträge und kleinere Schriften 68). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, p. 48.
Mancini, Alberto (1991). Iscrizioni retiche e iscrizioni camune. Due ambiti a confronto. Quaderni del Dipartimento di Linguistica -Università di Firenze 2, pp. 77–113.
Egg, Markus (1986). Italische Helme. Studien zu den ältereisenzeitlichen Helmen Italiens und der Alpen. Teil 1: Text, Teil 2: Tafeln. Mainz: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, pp. 614-620.
Marstrander, Carl (1927). Remarques sur les inscriptions des casques en bronze de Negau et de Watsch. Avhandlinger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo. Hist.-filos. klasse 1926/2, pp. 1–26.
Vetter, Emil (1924). Etruskische Wortdeutungen. Glotta 13, pp. 138–149.
Image
| Transliteration | t'erisna |
|---|---|
| Object | bronze helmet |
| Script | Rhaetic alphabet |
| Language | Rhaetic |
| Writing direction | sinistroverse |
| Technique | embossed |
| Condition | non-fragmentary |
| Findspot | Vače near Litija |
| Archaeological context | to be inserted |
| Archaeological culture | to be inserted |
| Date | second half of the 5th c. BC |
Original text
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Commentary
A single-word sinistroverse inscription consisting of seven letters is found embossed in the middle of the bevel. The writing technique itself (embossing with a pointed tool) finds an exact parallel in the linguistically Gaulish inscription on the Negau A helmet (dubni banuabi) from Ženjak. The inscription has so far been published and discussed in Schneider 1892, Marstrander 1927, Kretschmer 1943, Pellegrini 1969, Prosdocimi 1976, Egg 1986, Marinetti 1987, Mancini 1991, Eichner et al. 1994, Nedoma 1995, Rix 1998, Mancini 1999, Schumacher 2004, Eichner 2006, Marchesini & Roncador 2015, Salomon 2014/15, and the Thesaurus inscriptionum Raeticarum (s.l. SL-1).
Even though geographically isolated, the inscription on the helmet from Vače is both linguistically and epigraphically unambiguously Raetic. The word terisna itself is found on six other Raetic inscriptions: SR-4 (Serso), SR-6 (Serso), NO-13 (Revò, Monte Ozol), BZ-4 (San Maurizio/Moritzing, Bolzano/Bozen), BZ-26 (San Genesio Atestino/Jenesien, Bolzano/Bozen), and probably also SR-9 (Serso). The first three and SR-9 are found incised on bone (antlers and astragali), BZ-4 is engraved on a fragment of a bronze vessel, while BZ-26 is found engraved on a fragment of a Negau helmet and thus offers the best typological parallel to the inscription from Vače (SL-1). As far as the shape of the letters themselves is concerned (leaving aside the problems concerning the execution of the first letter form), the best parallel is NO-13, which is datable to the 6th/5th century BC. Palaeographic features of two of the inscriptions on antler bone from Serso (SR-4, SR-6) point to the Magrè-type of the Raetic alphabet, while the two inscriptions from Bolzano/Bozen are executed in the Sanzeno alphabet. SR-9 may potentially point to Magrè (as one would expect), although here the interpretation of the first three letter forms is highly problematic and ultimately uncertain. As far as NO-13 is concerned, it bears no diagnostic traces of the Sanzeno alphabet (in contradistinction to other geographically related epigraphic finds), but rather, as already pointed out, nearly perfectly (disregarding the essential difference in craftmanship) matches the ductus of SL-1. Both, then, should probably be seen to belong to the Magrè context proper.
Palaeographically, the only problematic part of the inscription from Vače is the very first letter form, which consists of a vertical hasta identical to an <i> with a dot positioned above or on the upper part of the stem. The same character (following Schumacher’s proposal, it is now generally – although provisionally – transliterated with ti) is used no more than eight times in the extant Raetic corpus (normally with a rather unpronounced diacritic). Apart from SL-1 it is found in HU-7 (a bronze situla of unknown provenance, now in Providence, USA), VR-1 (San Briccio, antler bone), VR-3 (Cà dei Cavri, the so-called “spada di Verona”), NO-3 (Meclo/Mechel, bronze plaque), and the already mentioned inscriptions on antler bone from Serso (SR-4 and SR-6). All eight inscriptions bear characteristics of the Magrè alphabet (with the exception of NO-3, which can potentially be seen as ambiguous), which makes it possible to position the invention and the use of the peripheral symbol ti within the same context. All of the catalogued parallels to SL-1 are associated with objects datable to the 5th and 4th centuries BC, while the astragal from Monte Ozol (NO-13) and especially the bronze situla (HU-7) may be even older, reaching back to the 6th/5th c. BC, i.e. the period of the advent of Raetic writing. Being datable to the 5th c. BC, the inscription on the Negau helmet from Vače neatly fits in the same time-frame.
Compared to other attestations, the only significant difference in the execution of the first letter form in SL-1 is that the diacritic mark above the vertical hasta was made more pronounced by a transformation into a small circle which consists of eight dots and encircles the upper part of the vertical stem. The original dot above the hasta, however, is left intact and sits above the circle. To all purposes, then, the character seems diacritically doubly marked. An equally pronounced diacritic is found on NO-13 and SR-4 (both bone), where it is marked with an almost exaggerated indentation. Given the comparison with the inscription dubni banuabi on the Negau A helmet from Ženjak, however, it is not impossible that it is in fact the circular head of the first character on SL-1 which is original, while the diacritic mark in the form of a dot has been added subsequently. The execution of the short slanting hastae (upper and lower) of the initial dzeta in Negau A as dotted circles makes it possible to view the same feature in SL-1 as representing the short horizontal slant of the usual shape of the letter tau as used in the Magrè alphabet (matching the Etruscan /t/ and Venetic /d/). If this is the case, the additional indentation above the embossed circle would necessarily mean a subsequent correction, or, possibly, a means of disambiguation between a tau and a phi (note that the latter possibility is infinitely less likely, given that the upper feature of a phi on the Negau A helmet is much wider and less circular, almost approaching a rhomboid shape, than the one used to represent the horizontal slants of the dzeta). A conceivable parallel is again offered by NO-13, the first character of which seems to have been improved from a plain tau to an unambiguous case of a ti (see Salomon 2014/15, 240). Another possible case is VR-1, where ti is intersected by a short horizontal bar. If the latter is part of the character rather than a scratch mark, it could equally point to a secondary modification of a plain tau.
Concerning the short slanting twig-like incision that extends to the left from the middle of the stem of ti on the inscription from Vače, it can either be viewed as purely accidental or deliberate. In the latter case, the execution technique would speak firmly in favour of a later addition. If taken as an integral (albeit subsequently added) part of the character in question, the only imaginable reason for its introduction would be disambiguation. The resulting letter form would be without an exact parallel, though, so the model on which such an additional bar may have been introduced is far from apparent. A similar form of tau is found on the (linguistically Gaulish) graffito on a ceramic pot found in Spodnja Hajdina near Ptuj, but there the protruding bar is oriented against the direction of the inscription and the inscription itself is several centuries younger than what we are dealing with in the case of Vače. Neither does it find a convincing match in the shape of the ti in VR-1 (on which see above).
Be that as it may, the exact function of ti and its phonetic value (in particular as opposed to tau) is essentially unclear. What is almost certain, however, is the fact that ti does not represent an alveolar/dental affricate /ts/. For the latter, both the Magrè and Sanzeno alphabets nearly systematically use special symbols (a b-like symbol with three triangular bellies in Magrè and an arrow-shaped character in Sanzeno), while ti is never used in any of the contexts that typically feature a /ts/ (such as, e.g., tsinake ‘dedicated’, matching Etruscan zinake ‘fashioned, made’). Schumacher’s proposal (2004, 307–312) that ti represents the third variant of /ts/ has recently been made obsolete by Salomon’s discussion of the relevant material (2014/15) and ultimately rests on the falsifiable assumption that the character used in the beginning of NO-13 represents a compromise form between ti and the arrow-shaped form of /ts/. Given that a) none of the eight inscriptions that feature ti contain any other form of „t“, b) ti is used before front vowels (tie, tii), back vowels (tia) and consonants (til) alike, and c) a form like utiku ‘given’ is also spelled with tau, ti can hardly represent anything else but /t/, and, as such, represent a simplified form of tau. This is corroborated by the fact that in the Sanzeno alphabet the same words are found spelled with a reverse form of pi, which, as convincingly argued by Salomon (op. cit.), represents the counterpart of ti, predominantly used in the Magrè context, and is genetically more transparently related to tau. Note that Schumacher’s strongest argument in favour of the interpretation of ti as /ts/ is SR-9, which he reads as tśie[ris]na, i.e. with a trigraph <tśi> in place of ti (2004, 309) is wrought with difficulties on the palaeographic level, so that it can hardy constitute any kind of firm evidence in favour of the interpretation that what we are dealing with in the case of ti is indeed a voiceless alveolar/dental affricate.
The meaning of the word terisna is ultimately unknown. Judging from the suffix -na it looks like a feminine patronymic (i.e. genetically an adjective of appurtenance) but given its rather wide distribution and the archaeological context, coupled with the fact that it appears isolated in inscriptions like SL-1 and NO-13, this is not at all likely. In all its occurrences it stands in the unmarked, i.e. the nominative/accusative case, which would speak rather strongly in favour of a noun. The sequence has been compared by Rix (1998, 48) and Eichner (2006, 211 and apud Salomon 2014/15, 254) to Etruscan zeri ‘?’ (surmised to mean ‘everyone, all’) and Lemnian zari[sna]? (proposed to mean ‘public’ < *‘belonging to everyone’) respectively. Rix (2000, 13) has drawn an additional parallel between terisna and the Etruscan noun (?) têrśna or, possibly, zêrśna (of equally unknown meaning), attested as a hapax on Tabula Cortonensis, where it appears in conjunction with the adjective rasna ‘public’. If this is indeed the Etruscan cognate to Raetic terisna and if it is to be interpreted palaeographically as têrśna, the Raetic sequence is of course interpretable as /terisna/. If the equation with the (non-attested!) Etruscan zerisna is correct and if têrśna on Tab. Cortonensis is to be read zêrśna (whether etymologically connected to the former or not), this would unavoidably point towards the interpretation of terisna as /tserisna/ and possibly suggest a meaning along the lines of ‘a property of all’. It is to be stressed, however, that this proposal is extremely conjectural (essential ambiguity as to the correct reading of the initial consonant in t/zêrśna, fundamentally unclear etymological connection between zeri and t/zêrśna, assumed syncope and progressive palatalisation that would point to an earlier *t/zerisna > North Etruscan *t/zērišna > *t/zēršna etc.) and ultimately circular, given that the conjecture is supported by the assumption that ti in terisna represents a /ts/. The resulting proposal as to the possible meaning of terisna is equally problematic, because it clearly does not fit the predominantly votive context in which the word is normally found (see esp. Schumacher 2004, 334–335; Salomon 2014/15, 253–256; TIR s.v. terisna). Be that as it may, a phonetic interpretation of Raetic terisna along the lines of /tserisna/ is rendered highly improbable by the fact that terisna is never attested with either of the two characters that are normally used to represent Raetic /ts/ and that in all of the inscriptions that feature its use, ti seems to be used as a functional equivalent of tau. The two examples of terisna from the area of Bolzano/Bozen (BZ-4, BZ-26) equally militate against the idea, given that the initial consonant is spelled with the Sanzeno-type tau (i.e. the reverse form of pi).
What does remain within the realm of possibility is that ti was originally invented as a modification of tau in the context of the Magrè alphabet in order to represent something like a /tj/ resulting from a palatal pronunciation of t before front vowels but was subsequently (and rather early-on) extended to stand for non-palatalised /t/. This would at least help explain (possible) examples of secondary emendations such as ones potentially witnessed in the case of NO-13, VR-1, and perhaps SL-1, as well as the fact that in the context of Magrè ti seems to be in fact redundant. It would of course also account for the spelling tśie[ris]na in the case of SR-9 (under the necessary assumption that this is indeed the correct reading). In such an event, however, ti and the Sanzeno-tape tau (which is but a plain modification of the old tau) necessarily have different histories. Such an idea, however, is complicated (if not entirely disproven) by the fact that tau in the Magrè alphabet is generally typical of younger inscriptions (3rd through 1st c. BC), whereas ti is the only form of tau found in the oldest attestations.
Bibliography
Egg, M., 1986, Italische Helme. Studien zu den ältereisenzeitlichen Helmen Italiens und der Alpen. – Mainz: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum.
Eichner, H., 2006, Das Ǝ von Cortona und das etruskische Phonemsystem. In/V: P. Amann et al. (eds./ur.), Italo – Tusco – Romana. Festschrift für Luciana Aigner, Wien, 209–220.
Eichner, H., Istenič, J., Lovenjak, M., 1994, Ein römerzeitliches Keramikgefäß aus Ptuj (Pettau, Poetovio) in Slowenien mit Inschrift in unbekanntem Alphabet und epichorischer (vermutlich keltischer) Sprache. – Arheološki vestnik 45, 131–142.
Kretschmer, P., 1943, Die vorgriechischen Sprach- und Volksschichten. – Glotta 30, 84–218.
Mancini, A., 1991, Iscrizioni retiche e iscrizioni camune. Due ambiti a confronto. – Quaderni del Dipartimento di Linguistica - Università di Firenze 2, 77–113.
Mancini, A., 1999, Iscrizioni retiche: aspetti epigrafici. In/V: G. Ciurletti, F. Marzatico, I Reti / Die Räter, Trento, 297–333.
Marchesini, S., Roncador, R., 2015, Monumenta Linguae Raeticae. – Roma: Scienze e Lettere.
Marinetti, A., 1987, L'iscrizione retica (PID 247) da Cà dei Cavri (Verona). In/V: A. Aspes (ed./ur.), Prima della Storia. Inediti di 10 anni di ricerche a Verona, Verona, 131–140.
Marstrander, C. J. S., 1927, Remarques sur les inscriptions des casques en bronze de Negau et de Watsch. – Avhandlinger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo. Hist.-filos. klasse 1926/2, 1–26.
Nedoma, R., 1995, Die Inschrift auf dem Helm B von Negau. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Deutung norditalischer epigraphischer Denkmäler. – Wien: Fassbaender.
Pellegrini, G., 1969, Popoli Preromani nelle Alpi Orientali. In/V: N. Kuret, M. Matičetov (eds./ur.), Alpes Orientales V. Acta quinti conventus de ethnographia Alpium Orientalium tractantis, Ljubljana, 37–54.
Prosdocimi, A. L., Scardigli, P., 1976, Negau. In/V: V. Pisani, C. Santoro (ed./ur.), Italia linguistica nuova ed antica. Studi linguistici in memoria di Oronzo Parlangèli, Galatina, 179–229.
Rix, H., 1998, Rätisch und Etruskisch. – Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft.
Rix, H., 2000, Osservazioni preliminari ad un’interpretazione dell'Aes Cortonense. – Incontri linguistici 23, 11–31.
Salomon, C., 2014/2015, Zu Varianten von Pi und Tau in rätischen Inschriften. – Die Sprache 51/2, 237–263.
von Schneider, R., 1892, Neuere Erwerbungen der Antikensammlung des österreichischen Kaiserhauses in Wien. 1880–1891. – Archäologischer Anzeiger, 48–56.
Schumacher, S., 2004, Die rätischen Inschriften. Geschichte und heutiger Stand der Forschung (2., erweiterte Auflage). – Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck.
Schumacher, S., Salomon, C., Kluge, S., Bajc, G., Braun, M., 2013–, Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum. <https://www.univie.ac.at/raetica>
