PART 4 – Ch.XXVIII.5
Prehistoric
monuments of metallurgic art in
(The
Arimaspian or Hyperborean treasure from Petrosa)
XXVIII.
5. The torc with inscription (VII. Torques)
[1. Secchi calls it colana d’oro; Micali
and Arneth torques; Charles de Linas armilla or torques; Soden-Smith neckring; the silversmith Telge of
Odobescu
considers it as armilla (arm bracelet), but keeping in mind its large size,
this ring could not have been used even for the upper part of the arm].
In the treasure
discovered in 1838 on the slopes of Istrita mountain,
were also two large gold rings (torcs),
each having an inscription.
Of these two torcs,
one has been estranged even before the Romanian authorities had begun their
searches. We have no other data about the nature of its inscription but a
simple declaration of the peasant Ion Lemnariul, who had discovered the
treasure, that both torcs were engraved with letters which could not be read.
The second torc
with inscription, whose diameter was 153mm, has escaped whole from all the
dangers through which this treasure had passed in the year 1838; but on the
other hand it had to suffer even more after it entered in the national museum
of Bucuresci.
In the night of
The search start
immediately and the Romanian authorities succeed in discovering this thief and
to gather again in the museum these precious antiquities, but this time in a
worse state of preservation than in 1838, after the destruction of Verussi. The
criminal Pantazescu had given the torc with inscription to an accomplice of
his, silversmith in Bucuresci, who had cut it in several pieces, one break
being right in the middle of the inscription. Today only two small pieces,
which bear the inscription, still exist of this extremely important torc, one
fragment 10mm long and the other 185mm; the two extremities of the torc have
disappeared.
By the breaking to
which this torc had been exposed had been destroyed only one letter in the
middle, as well as the part above the third letter from the end. Luckily
though, the form of these two characters is today very well known. Even before
1875 some copies of this inscription had been published in the country, as well
as abroad, and for the
We shall first
reproduce here this inscription from the following three copies, relatively the
best ones, out of those published before 1875.
In regard to the
true interpretation of this inscription, the biggest difficulty was in knowing
and fixing the ethnographic character of the elements which formed the text of
the inscription, because on the nature of this alphabet depends also the value
to be attributed to each letter.
The first to
examine in a more objective way the inscription of the torc from Petrosa, and
who had more clear views regarding the paleographic form of the letters, have
been the Italian scholars.
In 1843 the Jesuit
father Secchi had made a
communication to the archaeological
The following year,
1844, another distinguished archaeologist from
The inscription on the
torc from Petrosa, as
it was published by Micali in
Monumenti inediti (Firenze, 1844, Tav. 53) and reproduced by Fabretti in Corpus inscr. Ital. (1867) nr. 62
The inscription on the
torc from Petrosa,
as per the galvano-plastic reproduction,
made for
(After Henning, Die deutschen Runendenkmaler,
1889, Taf. II. 3)
The inscription on the
torc from Petrosa
reproduced by C. Bolliac
In Trompeta Carpatilor, nr. 939 (1871)
In 1850 Ioseph Arneth, the director of the
imperial museum of antiquities of Viena, describes too the gold pieces
discovered at Petrosa and reproduces in copies the inscription of this torc.
Arneth agrees
wholly with the opinion of the Italian scholars, that the characters of this
inscription resemble in everything the Pelasgian,
and even the “eugane” (Die antiken
Gold-und=Silber-Monumente des k. u. k. Munz-und Antiken-Cabinettes in Wien,
Wien, 1850, p. 86).
But the literati of
Seduced by the
similarity of some characters with the so-called Anglo-Saxon runes, they
believed that the inscription from the torc of Petrosa is runic, and that it
contains gothic words, or at the least German, posterior to the epoch of the
Goths,
The first to emit
this opinion in 1855 was Iuliu Zacher
from
G . . a n i o v i h a
i l a g.
This was the
beginning of a long generation of errors regarding the text of the inscription
and the origin of the treasure from Petrosa, errors to which had succumbed in
half a century a large number of literati, some more illustrious, others more
obscure.
In 1856 the German
philologist Wilhelm Grimm makes a
communication to the
+ u t a
n n o t h i h a i l a
+
which he translates in
German with the words:
Gluck, frei
von Bedrangniss.
In 1857 another
distinguished linguist, Massmann,
reads the inscription:
G u
t a n n o
m h a i l a g.
And
explains it with the words (in Der Bukarester Runenring, p. 209-218):
Den gothischen Jahrgeldern heilig, or
Der Gothen Jahrgeld unverletzt
The same year
(1857), Lauth believes (Das
germanische Runenfuthark. Munchen, p. 76-81) that this inscription contains the
words:
G u t
a n i o d h a I l a g
Wodan’s
heiliges Gut
In 1861, Dietrich proposes a new interpretation
(De inscriptionibus duabus runicis ad Gothorum gentem relatis.
G u t
a n i o t h i h a i l a g
Divino
cultui sacer
But in 1866 another
scholar, Dr. Georg Stephens, professor
of English language and literature at the
G u t
a n i o w i h a i l a g
To
the Goths’ temple consecrated
In 1884 though,
Stephens breaks the words in a new way (The Old-Northern Runic Monuments of
Scandivavia and
G u t
a n i o w i
h a i l a g
Dedicated
to the new temple of the Goths
In 1878, P. I. Cosijn publishes a note about the
treasure from Petrosa in the Memories of the Science Academy of Amsterdam and
explains the text supposed to have been:
G u t
a n i o w i h a i l a g
Consecrated gift from the Goth women
In 1884-1889,
professor Henning from the German University
of Strassburg also studies the torc from Petrosa, which around 1884 he calls “the only German runic monument” (letter
to Telge, Strassburg, 23 Juli, 1884), and in 1889 considers as “the most ancient principal object among the
German runic monuments” (Die deutschen Runendenkmaler, Strassburg, 1889, p.
27).
Henning adopts the
reading of Stephens:
G u t
a n i o w i h a i l a g
but its meaning
according to him was (Ibid. p. 43):
Das gothische heilige (unverletzliche)
Gottereigen (Tempelgut)
Finally, we must
mention here also the opinions of the Lutheran priest Rudolf Neumeister from Bucuresci (1861-1866).
He proposed
(Mittheilungen d. Central-Commission, Wien, XIII, 1868, p. 115-117) three different
interpretations of the text of this inscription, which if read:
G u t a n i o w
i h a i l a g
would mean: Dem
Wodan heilig.
By separating the
words as: G u t a n i
o w i h a i l a g, and
considering that the Goths called
But if read: G u t
a n i o w i
h a i l a g, then it would mean: Dem guten Vaterlande wie heilig (gewidmet).
The hypothesis that
the inscription from Petrosa might be in Gothic language, or in ancient German
(Teutonic), could not give a satisfactory interpretation to this day.
“The word hailag”, writes Bock, “is not found in the Gothic language (in the translation of
the Bible made at Ulphila) and this word belongs certainly to the Teutonic
German dialect, so it cannot correspond to such a remote past (of the invasion
of the Goths). When we have sent a facsimile of this inscription to the
distinguished linguist Dr. Parmet, doctor of philology at Munster Academy, and
have expressed the wish to hear his opinion regarding the reading of this
inscription, he, after a profound study, had declared that here we do not deal with runes, but with ancient Greek letters, which, although
the clumsy (?) engraver could make only straight lines, had lost only very little
from their true, original form (Der Schatz d. Westgothenkonigs Athanarik, p.
117).
On another hand, Labarte, the distinguished French
archaeologist, speaking about the artistic character and the ethnographic
origin of the treasure from Petrosa, says the following:
“In no way can we
suppose that these precious objects might have been made by the Goths. The
Goths were farmers and soldiers, and always unrestrained plunderers. These good
and bad qualities of theirs can in no way be connected with the arts, and it is
impossible to have ever existed in their huts, in the middle of the woods,
workshops, in which such elegant and valuable gold objects could be fabricated”
((Histoire d. arts industriels, I. p. 332-333).
We return now to
the text of this interesting inscription.
In the critical
examination of the graphic characters presented on this torc, we must not lose
sight of the fact that we find the same form of letters in the ancient Greek
inscriptions, the Italic, and everywhere where the Pelasgian people had spread.
The so-called Runic alphabet contains only
part of the elements of the ancient Pelasgian alphabet, the alphabet of
that great people, powerful and highly advanced in civilization, who during the
Neolithic and Bronze epochs had spread not only over the southern parts of
Europe, but also over the lands of Germany, Gaul, Sweden, Norway and Brittany
[2].
[2. According to the opinions of
ancient authors, he word “runa” or “rhuna”, was in the beginning just a
general name for the graphic characters used in the lands inhabited by the
Celts, the Germans and the Pelasgians from north of the
The origin and meaning of this word
cannot be explained, either in the Celtic language, or in German.
On the contrary, is seems even that
this term has an ethnographic character,
from the name of the ancient Pelasgian people called Rimi, Arimi, or Ramni.
In the parts of
The Danish archaeologist Olaus Wormius (+ 1654) tells us that
the so-called runes were also called Ram
runner (Du Cange, Gloss. med. et inf. lat. ad vocem Alyrumnae); we probably have here a
Danish expression, formed from the name Ramleni.
The bishop Venantius Fortunatus of
Even at the time of
Cesar, in the southern parts of
We reproduce here
the following words of Julius Cesar:
“In the castra of the Helvetiens
were found some registers written with Greek
letters, which were brought to Cesar”.
And as for the Gauls, the same Cesar writes that the Druids learned by rote a great number of
verses, and that they believed it was bad to put those verses in writing; but
in all the other public affairs of theirs, and in their private reckoning, they
used the Greek letters (Bell. Gall. I. 29).
We also find the
following note with Tacit (
The use of the
ancient Pelasgian letters in the northern parts of Hellada, or in the lands
so-called of the Barbarians, goes back to very remote times. “Even in ancient
times the Ioniens”, as Herodotus writes, “called the written
books “shaved skins” (tas biblous) [3], because
not having the papyrus, they used for writing goat and sheep skins. Even now, at my time, many
of the Barbarians write on such skins” (lib. V.
58).
[3. This word derives without doubt from the
Pelasgo-Latin adjective bubulus, for
example coria bubula, cattle skins,
from which was formed later the Greek biblos, book, biblion, pl. biblia,
little book. In the beginning, the words charta
bibula (chartai biblion) had the same meaning also. Later though, the
Greeks applied the name biblos,
But with the
extinguishing of the Pelasgian element from the
The various
populations of Celtic and German race, which occupied the
The same also
results from the words of Tacit about
the Germans: literarum secreta viri
partier ac feminae ignorant (Germ. c. 19). And he writes in another place
(Germ. c. 5):
“If the good gods,
or the bad gods, had denied the Germans the gold and the silver, I don’t know.
But neither can I affirm that some gold or silver vein could not exist in
As we saw, for the
German literati the word “hailag”
presented the best guaranty that the inscription on the torc from Petrosa has a
German character and meaning.
Wishing to bring to
light with any price, Gothic words in the inscription from Petrosa, the German
literati had lost themselves for almost 50 years in arbitrary etymologies of
some words truly imaginary, without keeping in mind that the oldest
inscriptions on the art monuments and objects do not contain consecrating
formula, but usually they indicate the name of the craftsmen who had executed
those works, as for example Duenos med
feced, on the oldest Latin inscription (Breal, La plus ancienne inscription latine, p. 16), Novios Plautios med Romai feced, on a
copper tablet in Rome (C. I. L. vol. I. nr.54), C. Ovio(s) Ou(fentina) fecit, on a copper bust of Medusa in Rome
(C. I. L. vol. I. nr. 24), or on the Greek monuments: Manophantos epoiei; ‘Epagatos
epoiei; Chieron epoiesen, etc.
Finally, if the
German interpreters had seriously examined the original of the torc; if they
had not been content only with simple copies, made by people unaccustomed with
the most delicate points of archaeology and paleography; and especially, if
they had not neglected to compare the letters from the torc with other
inscriptions, then they could have easily reached the conclusion that the last
letters of the inscription from Petrosa could in no way represent the word “hailag”.
We have examined at
various times at
We reproduce here a
drawing of this inscription, as appearing today.
The inscription on the
torc from Petrosa,
in its present state
The last five
letters of this inscription (10-14) also appear figured, in almost the same
form, on other two monuments which had been considered as runic, namely, on a
fibula discovered at Osthofen between Worms and Mainz 
(Henning, Die deutschen Runendenkmaler,
p. 70 and Taf. II. 5), and on another fibula conserved at
The inscription engraved on the
fibula discovered at Kerlich, today
at
with the same graphic
characters at its right end, as those also shown on the torc from Petrosa
(After Henning, Die deutschen Runendenkmaler,
p. 156).
He declared this fibula a fake, but
without any serious reason)
The five final
letters constitute therefore a word in itself and they will have to be
interpreted separately from the other text. We can anyway observe even on the
body of the torc an obvious demarcation between the letter H and the last group formed by the five letters.
The first letter in
this final word 
has two
horizontal parallel lines high on the right. It represented therefore an F from the alphabet of the Volsgi and
Latins.
The second letter
is an Etruscan and Latin I.
The third letter
had been damaged in 1875. It had been pressed by the pliers of the silversmith,
accomplice of Pantazescu, who had filed and cut the torc around the middle of
the inscription. But this letter half erased today,
appears under the form of 
or 
in all the
facsimiles which had been published between 1841 and 1875.
It represents in
the ancient Ionic and Eolo-Doric alphabet the letter gamma, to which the Etruscans and Volscii gave the value of C (K)
[4].
[4.
The inscription on the torc from
Petrosa after the reproduction of Telge,
(at
Henning, Die d. Runendenkmaler, p.
29)
In the facsimile presented by Henning, from the reproduction of Telge, a spot can be seen
near the trunk of this letter, as if
this letter had two legs like 
( L ), but as anybody who examines the
original can see, that this sign doesn’t form an engraved little line, but is
only the trace of a simple accidental kick, of which there are several on the
body of this torc, even on the parts where there are no letters].
The fourth letter
is formed from a straight trunk, has up on right two sloping lines, and a bit
lower other two short little lines in the shape of oval points, which all those
who had copied this inscription to this day, had overlooked or ignored. Only in
the facsimile published by Micali in 1844, the two small lines appear as only
one point. We have here therefore an E,
which under the form 
also appears
on the Pelasgian inscription from
The last letter X represents a T from the epigraphy of upper
It results
therefore that the last word in the text of the inscription from Petrosa
corresponds to the Latin letters:
F I C E T
meaning fecit.
FICET is the last word also on the two fibulae
from Osthofen and Kerlich, considered as runic, out of ignorance.
Finally, we know
also two other inscriptions supposed runic, in which the last word FICET, or FECIT, appears under a shortened form, inversed, of 
(see further
illustration).
“Instead of FECIT”
writes Fabretti, “the ancients wrote sometime F C in abbreviated form, and on
Greco-Roman titles is written 
and rarely 
(Corpus inscr.
Ital. p. 458). We meet often the forms ficet
and ficit in vulgar
Latin language (Schuhardt, Vokal. I. 311).
If therefore the
last word of the inscription of the torc from Petrosa is FICET (ficet), and this fact cannot be contested, then certainly
the other part of the text contained the name of the master who had fabricated
the ring.
We shall examine
here now the remaining 9 letters which form the beginning and middle of the
inscription. Most of the characters of this part of the text present almost no
difficulty in regard to their true value.
The second letter
from the beginning is a 
( L ), which we
find under this form in the Pelasgo-Greek alphabet, but used especially by the
Falisci, Etruscans and on the ancient coins of
The third letter is
a 
, which we
also find in the alphabet from NW of Etruria (Berger, Hist. de l’ecriture, p. 149; Lenormant, Etude sur l’origine et la formation de l’alphabet grec.
49; Pauly-Wissova, R. E. p. 1618).
The form of this letter also appears on the Pelasgian inscription from
The fourth letter,
with the upper limb longer than the one underneath, represents a F ,
meaning A
in the alphabet of
the Rheti and Salasi (Daremberg,
Dict. d. antiquites, p. 214; Fabretti,
Corp. inscr. Ital. Tab. 1).
The fifth letter is
a T of eugubine form. The sixth is
an Etruscan and Latin I. The
seventh, an O formed of four
straight lines, as it also appears on the inscriptions from upper
The eight letter is
a 
( S ) in the
archaic form of 
as it appears
in the Eolo-Doric, Etruscan and ancient Roman alphabets (Daremberg, ibid. p. 196-198; Lenormant,
Etudes sur l’origine de l’alphabet grec, p. 55; Fabretti, Corp. inscr. Ital. p. CCCXV;
The only difficulty
seems to be presented by the initial X.
But if we observed the way in which the artist had engraved this graphic sign,
then it is evident the fact that we have here a combined letter, a consonant V with a vowel V.
The use of
connecting together two or more letters is anterior to Latin epigraphy. Proof
is also the numeral X, composed of
two signs V, one open upwards, the
other downwards. Finally, a V under
the form of X, with the upper part
more open, appears also on a grafitti discovered in the ruins of ancient
Aquineum in
We have here
therefore the following letters:
V U L C H A T I O S .
F I C E T [5]
[5. Volcatius as family name appears in the history of the Etruscans as
well as in that of the Romans. The form is archaic, Pelasgian].
The ending in os instead of us at nouns, names, and adjectives, is a characteristic of the
archaic times. In the Umbric language we find: cerfos (servus), manos
(manus), alfos (albus), salvos (salvus), and in the ancient
Latin inscriptions: Volcanos (C.I.
L. vol. I. 20), Duenos, Novios, Plautios, etc.
The fact that on
the inscription from Petrosa the letter ( S ) of Vulcatios appears farther away
than the preceding letters is not at all an isolated case. In Latin epigraphy
we have an infinite number of examples where the final S in proper names is thrown further away, as if this letter had not
been pronounced for some time. For example VRSV
S, VIBIANV S, etc (C.I.L. vol. III. nr. 4778, 4785).
We have now to
examine the value and meaning of the letter H, whose position as we see it, is isolated between the two words Vulchatios and ficet.
Other two Pelasgian
inscriptions, considered in a unilateral way as German runes, tells us about the phonetic character of this letter in the
inscription from Petrosa. On one of these inscriptions the letter which
precedes the word FICET appears
under the form 
(
) see above
the illustration of the fibula discovered at Kerlich, today at 
, represents
an O (Daremberg, Dict. d. antiquites, p. 209). That the letter H on the torc from Petrosa has really
the value of a vowel, of an O, and
it is not an abbreviation, is confirmed by the inscription on the fibula from
Osthofen which we have reproduced above, where this H is replaced with
( O ) before FICET, under the form of 
(it is certain
that in this word the second letter from end represents an E – Henning, p. 151).
But in order to reach a definite conclusion regarding this H, we must examine here the phonetic value of this letter also in
the alphabet of the southern Pelasgians from the
In the ancient
Cadmic alphabet the letter H was
used as aspiration as well as vowel. But in the Ionic-Attic alphabet H was a letter for the Ionic sound e which corresponded to the primitive Greek a
(Pauly-Wissova, R. E. p. 1615; Lenormant, p. 14).
It results therefore
that this isolated H, which in the
Ionic-Attic alphabet corresponded to an e or a, and in the alphabet of the northern Pelasgians was replaced by( O ), had really the value of a vowel,
of an O, and that it was probably an aspirated O.
So we have
determined now all the characters of this text. The entire inscription on the
torc from Petrosa reads:
V U L C H A T I O S
O F I C E T [6]
[6. The inscription on the torc from Petrosa: VULCHANOS O FICET. The
German scholar Wilhelm Grimm
declared in the communication made in 1856 to the Academy of Sciences of
Berlin, regarding the text of the inscription from the torc of Petrosa, that
only the sixth letter of the inscription, I , is not quite certain,
because it could be observed a transverse line over the middle of this letter 
(Henning, Die deutschen Runendenkmaler,
p. 29).
Massmann
considers this I as a , exactly like
Grimm does. We have examined this letter on various occasions, on the original
of the torc, from the paleographic point of view, and all that we could see was
only a very thin small line, almost imperceptible, which stretches not over the
middle, but towards the lower part of I, having the same direction as the transverse line of the
preceding letter. But our conviction is that this microscopic line was not made
by the artist, who had engraved in a uniform and quite deep mode all the other
letters of the inscription.
But supposing that this small line,
almost invisible, could really be part of I,
then the two characters 
(5 and 6) would
constitute only one letter, and then we would have here the same type which we
find among the signs of ownership, or in the alphabet of the rafters of 
. In this case
the reading of the inscription on the torc from Petrosa could be: VULCANOS O FICET. The name Vulcan appears under analogous forms
also on other monuments: Velchanu on
an Etruscan inscription, Felchanos
on an inscription in
According to Homer’s Iliad, Vulcan (Hephaistos)
had spent 9 years in a cave near the great river Oceanos (Istru), making
clasps, rings, bracelets, earrings and torcs. It was said especially about
Vulcan that he had fabricated a gold torc for the wife of Cadmos, called ‘Armonia, according to legends a
daughter of Mars and niece of Atlas. The words of Apollodorus (Bibl. lib. III. cap. 4. 2) are: “And Cadmus gave Harmonia that torc, by Vulcan-made”.
In ancient traditions this neck
ornament has a particular, sinister history:
From Harmonia the torc by “Vulcan-made” had passed to Polynice, who gave it to Eriphyla, to convince her husband Amphiaraus to take part in the war of
the seven captains against Thebes of Beotia, and Amphiaraus had to go, although
he knew that he will die there. Eriphyle was killed by a son of his, who
avenged the death of Amphiaraus, then this torc went to Arsinoe, his wife, from Arsinoe to Phegeus and his wife Callirrhoe,
causing everywhere discord, quarrels and killings. Finally, after Phegeus was
killed by his sons, the torc of Harmonia was consecrated to Apollo and
deposited in the temple at
If the gold torc discovered at
Petrosa, which together with other precious objects had been consecrated to a
temple of Apollo, were really the same as the torc by “Vulcan-made”, given to Cadmos and Harmonia (both interred,
according to traditions, near the Iron Gates), then the superstitious people
could affirm that this torc has also continued to have fatal consequences for
its owners, after being discovered on the slopes of Istrita mountain.
This is what Odobescu wrote on the basis of official papers (TN – translated
from French):
“The violent pursuits that took place since the trial, of all the
persons who had been more or less implicated in this affair, have left with the
inhabitants of the locality memories so
terrifying, that even today the peasants hesitate it seems, to talk about
evil days, when the evil spirit would push one of theirs to fall into the
temptation of wealth. The old man Stan
Avram and his son-in-law Ion
Lemnariu have both died in prison, even before the end of the trial, which
lasted until 1842. All their accomplices,
peasants or town people, were reduced to ruin or died in a short time (Le
Tresor,
Vulcan was
also known to the ancient inhabitants of the northern parts of Istru, as the
most renowned master in working the metals, especially gold objects. In
Romanian carols he is sung as a good smith, who works the gold.
In German heroic traditions, (Grimm, Die deutsche Heldensage, see
Wieland, p. 196) he figures under the name of Wayland, Walland, Weland, Wieland, Wielant, Valland, Volund, Velint. He also
appears as a nephew of king Vilkinus, and his smithy was at the mountain Glogensachsen or Gokelsass. As we know, under the name Caucas figure in prehistoric times the Dacian Carpathians.
According to the same German
traditions, he works various gold objects and sculpts precious gems and cups in
an unknown city, in “urbe Sigeni” (Grimm, Heldensage, p, 41). We note here
that in a Romanian carol for the New Year (well-wishing with the plough), the
most renowned smith is from the town
(TN – terg) of
As we see, we have
here an epigraphic text – priscis literis verbisque scriptum – which presents a
linguistic particularity deserving the attention of our philologists. We ask
now, which is the grammatical role of this o,
identical in regard of its derivation, with the primitive Greek a.
Is it an auxiliary
verb to FICET, third person singular
from the verb am (habeo), as in
Romanian: o facut, or a facut (TN – “he or she has made” in both cases). Or is it the
feminine accusative of the personal pronoun III, an o born from la, with the
meaning of illam, ollam (fecit)? (TN – he, she made it?). We incline towards this latter
possibility, having in view the analogous formulae from the ancient Latin and
Greek inscriptions: Duenos med feced;
Novios Plautios med Romai fecid; Charis
m’ egraphe; Timonidas m’ egraphe, etc.
It results
therefore that the hypothesis of the German runes, on which is based the
imaginary text “gutani owi hailag” is and cannot be but definitely rejected.
There is no single
letter on the torc from Petrosa, which is not archaic Pelasgian, the meaning of
the text is itself Pelasgian, or to be better understood, Pelasgo-Latin. We
have here the forms of some graphic elements which belong to the barbarian
alphabet, or northern Pelasgian, which has formed the link between the alphabet
from the Archipelagos, called Ionic and the Rhetic, Salassic and upper
In the parts of
The Romanian
rafters from the banks of Bistrita in Moldova still use the same letters even
today in a traditional way, but without phonetic value, only as distinctive
signs for the logs, or building timber which they transport (Burada, Despre crestaturile plutasilor
pe cherestele, Iasi, 1880).
We reproduce here a
part of these signs, whose Pelasgo-Latin character is evident. All these signs
are formed from straight lines. By their aspect, in general and in particular,
they are graphic characters, which although have lost today their phonetic
value, have a historical origin; they are not signs made at random, invented by
each rafter for himself.
There is almost no
character in this archaic alphabet of the Romanian rafters from the mountains
of
Before ending this
chapter about the torc from Petrosa, we shall reproduce here two more
inscriptions. They will put even more in evidence the fact that the so-called
Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon runes are only the archaic remains of the northern
Pelasgian alphabet.
One of these
inscriptions appears on a bronze lance tips, discovered at Torcello near
