t 42s 3 
down to us, and perhaps to all fucceeding ages, fcy 
this fepulchral infcription. 
19. It mud: be farther obferved, that this curious 
monument conlifts of four Ihort periods ; every one 
of which may, in fome refpedt, be taken for a com- 
plete infcription. But this is a property it has in 
common with other fimilar remains of antiquity. 
Thus the Sigean infcription (70) is compofed of 
four fuch periods, and three are exhibited by the 
Punic (71) infcription that in a former paper I have 
attempted to explain. 
20. I have hinted above, that the infcription be- 
fore me is come down to us perfect and incorrupt ; 
not fo much as one of its letters having been either 
loft, or greatly damaged, by the injuries of time. 
To which I fhall now beg leave to add, that the 
words formed of thefe letters are, for the moft part, 
diftinguifhed from one another by points, placed be- 
tween them ; which muft, in a good meafure at leaft, 
afcertain the ledtion here, and of courfe greatly fa- 
cilitate the explication. The Etrufcans fometimes fe- 
parated their words from one another by two points, 
and fometimes by a Angle one only, as we learn 
from the Etrufcan infcriptions on the celebrated 
tables of Gubbio, and others published by Sig. Gori, 
in (72) the learned work referred to, which may be 
considered as a noble repofitory of all kinds of 
Etrufcan antiquities. The earlier Greeks alfo ufed 
the firft kind of interp unction, as we learn from the 
(70) Chilli. Antiqultat. AJiat. p. 30, 31. Lond. 1728. 
(71) Philo f Tran/. Vol. LIII. p. 279. 
(72I Anton. Francifc. Gor. Muj \ Etrufc. Vol. I. II. palT. 
Florentine, 1737. & Vol. III. paff. Florentine, 1743. 
Vol. UV. lii ‘Si gean. 
