Abstract

The discovery of upwards of a score of fragments of stagshorn with inscriptions in a North Italic alphabet closely resembling the Venetic, but also in the use of some symbols showing affinities with the ‘North-Etruscan’ alphabet, was reported in a careful record of the excavations in which the fragments came to light , written by Pellegrini for the Notizie degli Scavi for 1918, pp. 169–207. Some account of the excavations, with a description of the horn fragments and suggestions concerning the possible nature of the deity to whom they were offered, I attempted to give in a paper read before Section H of the British Association at Hull in September, 1922, reserving for the present article notes on the alphabet and text of the inscriptions, as well as all discussion of dialect. My chief object here is to deal with the forms which the inscriptions show, and to attempt to provide answers to the questions: Is the language of these inscriptions Indo-European or not? To what people or race are they to be assigned?