Negau helmet
From Open Encyclopedia
Negau helmet refers to one of 28 bronze helmets (23 of which are preserved) dating to ca. 400 BC, found in 1811 in a cache in Negau, present Zenjak, in Slovenia. The helmets are of typical Etruscan 'vetulonic' shape, sometimes described as of the Negau type. They were buried in ca. 50 BC, shortly before the Roman invasion of the area. Image:Negau helmet inscription.jpg On one of the helmets, there is an inscription in a northern Etruscan alphabet. Note that the inscription need not date to 400 BC, but was probably added by a later owner in ca. the 2nd century BC. It is read as
- Image:EtruscanH-01.pngImage:EtruscanA-01.pngImage:EtruscanR-01.pngImage:EtruscanI-01.pngImage:EtruscanK-01.pngImage:EtruscanA-01.pngImage:EtruscanS-01.pngImage:EtruscanT-01.pngImage:EtruscanI-01.pngImage:EtruscanT-01.pngImage:EtruscanE-01.pngImage:EtruscanI-01.pngImage:EtruscanF-01.pngImage:EtruscanA-01.png///Image:EtruscanI-01.pngImage:EtruscanP-01.png
- harigastiteiva///ip,
maybe "to Harigast the god (or, the priest?)", but another suggestion by Åke Ström reads it as "Harigasti Tei V A III Il" interpreted as "property of Harigast, son of Teus, third auxiliary Illyrian company", while Jost Gippert reads harigastiz fefakit "Harigast made (it)" (This would be intriguing since the name Harigast is clearly Germanic, while the verb is Italic; if the helmets were already aged two centuries when the inscription was added, the "Harigast made it" claim is either a lie, or an attribution to a mythical artisan (Harigast may be used as a name for the god that would later be known as Woden, see List of names of Odin).
In any case, the Germanic name Harigast is universally read. Formerly, some scholars have seen the inscription as an early incarnation of the runic alphabet, but it is now accepted that the script is Etruscan proper, and precedes the formation of the Runic alphabet. Harigast constitutes an attestation of the Germanic sound shift, probably the earliest preserved, preceding Tacitus by some two centuries (if Himmerland is named after the Cimbri, on the other hand, the sound shift cannot much predate the 2nd century).
