Lead plate from Magliano

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Front and back of the lead plate from Magliano

The lead plate from Magliano or the Magliano disc dates from the 5th century BC. And is one of the most important Etruscan written monuments. The artifact was found near Magliano in Tuscany in 1882 and is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence .

description

The lead made plate weighs 191 grams and is lenticularly curved. At the narrowest point it has a diameter of 7 cm and at the widest one of 8 cm. Only a few Etruscan written monuments have survived on metal plates. The arrangement of the text is just as unusual as the shape and texture of the disc. The plate is inscribed with Etruscan letters in a spiral on both sides . The manufacture of the artifact is estimated to have been around 450 BC. Dated.

The lead plate was found in February 1882 while working in a field 2 km southeast of Magliano near the former monastery of Santa Maria in Borraccia. The buildings, which date from the 13th century, have been used for agriculture since the 19th century. To the west of the site was an Etruscan necropolis with burial chambers from the 7th and 6th centuries BC. The lead plate must therefore not have had a funeral purpose, since such artifacts were also made for promises of sacrifice , oracles and escape boards . There may have been a sanctuary in the vicinity . Not far away was probably the Etruscan city of Hepa (Latin Heba ).

The inscriptions

The length of the text is remarkable, as it differs significantly from the many short Etruscan grave inscriptions with 70 individual words. The text is one of the longest in the Etruscan language. In accordance with Etruscan writing habits, the text is written from right to left with mirror-inverted letters. The text is to be read clockwise from the outside to the inside. Most words are separated from each other by a period.

Inscription A.

Inscription A.

The inscription A begins at the top left. Three vertical dots are used twice to separate words. This was apparently intended to divide the text into individual phrases.

CAUTHAS • TUTHIU • AVILS • LXXX • EZ • CHIMTHM • CASTHIALTH • LACTH • HEVN • AVIL • NEŚL • MAN • MURINAŚIE • FALZATHI  ⁝
AISERAS • IN • ECS • MENE • MLATHCE MARNI • TUTHI • TIU • CHIMTHM • CASTHIALTH • LACTH  ⁝
MARIŚL MENITLA • AFRS • CIALATH • CHIMTH • AVILSCH • ECA • CEPEN • TUTHIU • THUCH • ICHU TEVR • HEŚNI • MULVENI • ETH • ZUCI • AM • AR

CAUTHAS is the genitive of Cautha , a female sun deity who also appears as an underworld goddess. The root word TUTH from TUTHIU could describe a public or communal fact. TUTHIU should be the corresponding adjective . AVILS is the genitive of AVIL (year) and the following characters represent Etruscan numerical symbols for 80 (Etruscan ????, Latin LXXX). So it seems to cover the period of 80 years. Later the word AVIL follows in the nominative . The meaning of the word sequence CHIMTHM, CASTHIALTH and LACTH, which appears again in the second section, is not known. The endings -TH indicate locatives , which could indicate specific places for sacrificial acts . Perhaps MAN is a short form of MANIM (building, grave) and MURINAŚIE is the adjectival form of Murina , the gentile name of an important Etruscan family.

The meaning of AISERAS at the beginning of the second section has long been unclear. Today it is assumed that AISERAS is the genitive of the plural AISER (gods) with the singular AIS (god). ECS is the genitive of ECA (this, this, this). MENE is likely to be related to MENECE, has given , and could be an imperative with the meaning of give! represent. TUTHI is the Etruscan word for citizenship or state . TIU means moon or month . So it could be the time for a public or community sacrifice.

MARIŚL is the genitive of Mariś , an unknown deity or genius . Presumably CIALATH and CHIMTH are locatives again and indicate places for acts of sacrifice. AVILSCH is an unknown form of AVIL (year). Perhaps the genitive AVILS is followed by a suffix –CH for and . In any case, ECA stands for this and CEPEN denotes a priest . So together with the following TUTHIU it could be an officially appointed priest of the community. MULVENI may have the same root word as MULUVENICE (donated) and could be an imperative meaning donation! be. If the ending -NI indicates an imperative, then HEŚNI could also contain a request. AM and AR can be traced back to the well-known words AMCE (has been) and ARCE (has made) and could be imperatives with the meaning Be! and do! represent.

Inscription B.

Inscription B.

The inscription B starts right in the middle. As in inscription A, the individual lines are not separated from one another by a spiral band. In the center of the disc, the spiral writing was deviated from. The last words are in three lines one below the other. Many words are not separated from each other.

MLACH THANRA CALUSC • ECNIA • IV AVIL • MI MENICAC • MARCA LURCAC • ETH • TUTHIU • NESL • MAN • RIVACH • LEŚCEM • TNUCASI • ŚURIS ICE ICE • EVITIURAS • MULSLE MLACH ILACHE TINS ​​• LURSTH • TEV LURSTACHES THUN

MLACH stands for a votive offering and appears again at a later point. THANRA is the adjective or the genitive of Thanr , a goddess who is associated with birth but also with death. CALUSC is made up of the genitive CALUS from Calu , an underworld god, and the suffix –C for and , comparable to the Latin suffix –QUE. According to another opinion, MLACH means beautiful or good, so that together THANRA CALUSC results in the reading of beautiful Thanr and Calu . This is followed by another time indication with IV AVIL (four years). The corresponding Etruscan numeral is ??. MI means I . However, it is not the author of the inscription but, according to Etruscan tradition, that the lead plate speaks of itself. If the following words MENICAC, MARCA and LURCAC stand adjectivally for deities, connected by the suffix –C for and , then the reading I would be from Meni, Mar and Lur express that the lead plate was the property of these deities. TUTHIU again describes a public or state condition. ŚURIS is the genitive of ŚURI, an underworld deity who may have been consulted as an oracle. Because of TIU for month with TIURAS as the genitive plural , EVITIURAS could be a recurring point in time in every month. TINS is also a genitive. TIN means day , but could also stand for Tinia , the highest Etruscan deity. LURSTH gives a locative to a place that belongs to the deity Lur. The root word TEV may designate a presenting action or given and could be used here as an imperative with the meaning show! occur.

Despite the numerous known words, the overall meaning of the text is unclear. Several underworld deities and probably acts of sacrifice are named. Therefore, the content probably relates to ritual instructions or obligations, such as at what times, every four years, annually or monthly, and at what sacred places certain offerings are to be made, perhaps in memory of one or more ancestors of the Murina family. It is unclear whether the inscription was aimed at people other than readers or was only intended for the owner of the disk. Use as an amulet is conceivable .

Research history

The inscription was first published in 1882 by Emilio Teza , an Italian linguist . Well-known linguists and Etruscologists have since studied the reading of the inscription. The German linguist Wilhelm Deecke tried in 1884 to translate the text literally and interpreted it as a sacrifice rule. The Norwegian philologist Alf Torp dealt at the beginning of the 20th century its Etruscan contributions with the lead plate of Magliano and provided important insights. Even Emil Goldmann , an Austrian legal historian and linguist, began in 1936 with the inscription apart. Goldmann and Torp have read the time II AVIL instead of IV AVIL in inscription B. Further attempts to translate the entire text word for word were made by Soeren Peter Cortsen in 1939 and, more recently, by Massimo Pittau . All previous translations of the inscription turned out to be partially incorrect or not recognized by experts. In 2013, the Dutch etrusologist Bouke van der Meer examined the Magliano inscription in detail and gave an overview of the research results so far.

  • Emilio Teza (1831-1912)

  • Wilhelm Deecke (1831-1897)

  • Alf Torp (1853-1916)

literature

Web links

Commons : Lead plate by Magliano  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mauro Cristofani : Dizionario della civiltà etrusca. Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, Florence 1999, ISBN 8809217284 , p. 154.
  2. ^ Emilio Teza: Di una iscrizione etrusca trovata in Magliano. In: Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica. Vol. X, 1882, pp. 530-534. ( online )
  3. ^ Wilhelm Deecke: The lead tablet from Magliano. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. New episode. 39th Volume, 1884, pp. 141-150. ( pdf )
  4. ^ Alf Torp: Etruscan contributions. 3 volumes, 1902–1906.
  5. ^ Emil Goldmann: Contributions to the teaching of the Indo-European character of the Etruscan language. Gerold & Co., Vienna 1936, pp. 219-252.
  6. ↑ Soeren Peter Cortsen: The content of the lead plate from Magliano. In: Glotta . 27, 1939, pp. 271-276.
  7. ^ Massimo Pittau: Studi sulla lingua etrusca. Ipazia Books, Sassari 2016, ISBN 9781980914709 , pp. 155-163.
  8. ↑ Bouke van der Meer: The Lead Plaque of Magliano. In: C. Chiaramonte, G. Bagnasco and F. Chiesa (eds.): Interpretando l'antico. Scritti di archeologia offerti a Maria Bonghi Jovino . Monduzzi Editoriale, Milan 2013, pp. 257–275.