Duenos inscription
The Duenos inscription is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts, variously dated from the 7th to the 5th century BC. 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. There have been many proposed translations advanced by scholars since the discovery of the kernos; by 1983, more than fifty different explanations of the meaning had been put forward. Due to the lack of a large body of archaic Latin, and the method by which Romans abbreviated their inscriptions, scholars have not been able to produce a single translation that has been accepted by historians as accurate. Below is the transcription and one of many possible interpretations: a. The direct unicase transcription b. Direct transcription, in lowercase, with possible macrons and word breaks c. A speculative interpretation and translation into Classical Latin d. An English gloss (approximate translation/interpretation) of the Classical Latin rendering Line 1: a. b. iouesāt deivos qoi mēd mitāt, nei tēd endō cosmis vircō siēd c. Jūrat deōs quī mē mittit, nī [ergā tē] comis virgō sit d. 'The person who sends me prays to the gods, lest the girl be not kind towards thee' Line 2: a. b. as(t) tēd noisi o(p)petoit esiāi pākā riuois c. at tē [... uncertain ...] pācā rīvīs d. 'without thee [...] calm with [these] rivers' Line 3: a. b. duenos mēd fēced en mānōm (m)einom duenōi nē mēd malo(s) statōd c. Bonus mē fēcit in manum [...] bonō, nē mē malus [clepitō] d.
