In the Pre-Historic Section of the Civic Natural History Museum in Verona (Veneto, IT) two Rhaetic inscriptions on deer horns: PID 245 and PID 246, written by using the Magré alphabet, from the ancient settlement of San Briccio di Lavagno (Veneto, IT) are shown to the visitors. Several papers have dealt with said inscriptions; however, up to now no interpretation or translation of them has been proposed.
The spelling and interpretation of PID 245 and PID 246 proposed in the paper are the following: PID 245: I I I I N E S U L A V, Slove.: IIII nas ulov = Engl.: our fourth pray (catch, capture); PID 246: M A L A I H T N, Slove.: malo ihtav = Engl.: little furious child (person).
The ancient Rhaetians were a Central European people spread on a land comprising Voralberg and Tirol in present Austria, Süd-Tirol, Trentino and West-Veneto in present Italy, Eastern Switzerland's Cantons, part of Bavaria and Baden-Würtenberg in present Germany.
The interpretations of PID 245 and PID 246 suggest that the corresponding horns had the function of little, portable, decorative trophies or amulets and permit us to exclude the possibility that these horns were ex-votos. The presence of Este's characters in the inscriptions confirms that San Briccio di Lavagno was a settlement at the western margin, or westward limit of the Venetic or Atestine influence, and that a real osmotic cultural process had taken place in San Briccio di Lavagno between Venetic and Rhaetic cultures. From the inscriptions it seems that the Rhaetic language, as well as the Venetic language, is more similar to modern Central European Slavic languages than to the Latin or Italic group of languages.
Page Created: October 22, 2001
Page Updated: October 22, 2001
©Copyright 2001 Gary L. Gorsha
