Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey

helbiggius fhaked me

I got off to an historically linguistically geeky morning [via Nephelokokkygia], searching the web for information on the faked quality of the Prænestine Fibula and its famous archaic Latin inscription:

MANIOS:MED:VHE:VHAKED:NVMASIOI
Manius made me for Numerius

While trying to figure out why Wolfgang Helbig might have faked the inscription on the fibula (basically a Roman safety pin) I ran across a new book I want to read, Margaret M T Watmough’s Studies in the Etruscan Loanwords in Latin, and, because of that, an entry in a new linguistics blog called Cælestis. Professor Watmough is involved in a project called Imagines Italicæ which “aims to place in the hands of scholars the primary evidence both for the texts of the inscriptions of the peoples of Central Italy and for the monumental and archaeological context of these inscriptions.” Too bad about the fibula. Looks like Helbig may have faked it to further his career ...