Duenos inscription

Duenos inscription
The Duenos inscription, as recorded by Heinrich Dressel
MaterialClay
Createdc. 550 BC
Discovered1880
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Discovered byHeinrich Dressel
Present locationBerlin, Germany
LanguageOld Latin
The Duenos Inscription on a kernos vase

The Duenos inscription is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts, variously dated from the 7th to the 5th century BC.[1] It is inscribed on the sides of a kernos, in this case a trio of small globular vases adjoined by three clay struts. It was found by Heinrich Dressel in 1880 in the valley between Quirinale and Viminale (today Via Nazionale) in Rome. The kernos is part of the collection of the Staatliche Museen in Berlin (inventory no. 30894,3).

The inscription is written right to left in three units, without spaces to separate words. It is difficult to translate, as some letters are hard to distinguish, particularly since they cannot always be deduced by context. The absence of spaces causes additional difficulty in assigning the letters to the respective words.

  1. ^ Osvaldo Sacchi, "Il trivaso del Quirinale", in Revue Interantionale de Droit de l'Antiquité, 2001, p. 277; citing: Attilio Degrassi, Inscriptiones Latinae Liberae Rei Publicae, 1, 1957; Arthur Gordon, "Notes on the Duenos-Vase Inscription in Berlin", California Studies in Classical Antiquity, Vol. 8, 1975, pp. 53–72; Giovanni Colonna, "Duenos", in Studi Etruschi, 47, 1979, pp. 163–172; Brent Vine, "A Note on the Duenos Inscription" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, University of California at Los Angeles.

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