the north of the Carpathians, as Dacian Costoboci. Material culture Some scholars associate the Costoboci with the Lipiţa culture. However Roger Batty, reluctant to correlate material culture with group identity, argues that Lipiţa culture belonged either to a subgroup of the Costoboci or to some population they ruled over. This culture developed on the northern side of the Carpathians in the Upper Dniester and Prut basins in the Late La Tène period. The bearers of this culture had a sedentary lifestyle and practiced agriculture, cattle-breeding, iron-working and pottery. The settlements were not fortified and contained sunken floored buildings, surface buildings, storage pits, hearths, ovens and kilns. There are numerous pottery finds of various types, both wheel and hand-made, with similarities in shape and decoration to the pottery of the pre-Roman Dacia. The pottery finds of the northern Lipiţa sites in the upper Zolota Lypa basin are similar to that of the Zarubintsy culture.The cemeteries were found close to settlements. The predominant funeral rite was cremation, with urns containing ashes buried in plain graves, but several inhumation graves were also excavated. Onomastics A Latin-language funerary inscription found in Rome, believed to date from the 2nd century AD, was dedicated to Zia or Ziais the Dacian, the daughter of Tiatus and the wife of Pieporus, a king of the Costoboci. The monument was set up by Natoporus and Drigisa, Zia's grandsons. The inscription was first published by the Italian scholar Mariangelus Accursius in the 16th century, but it is now lost. Inscription D(is) M(anibus) ZIAI TIATI FIL(iae) DACAE. UXORI PIEPORI. REGIS COISSTOBOCENSIS NATOPORUS ET DRIGISA AVIAE CARISS(imae) B(ene) M(erenti) FECER(unt) Translation "To the Spirits of the Dead. (Dedicated) to ZIA(IS) the Dacian, Daughter of TIATUS, Wife of PIEPORUS, Costobocan king. NATOPORUS and DRIGISA made (this memorial) for their most dear, well-deserving grandmother." Name analysis Drigisa: a Thracian or Dacian name. It is considered a variant with the infix -l- of the name Drigis(s)a, the name of the Roman veteran Aurelius Drigisa from Moesia Inferior and of the legionary Titus Aurelius Drigissa from Moesia Superior. The final element -gis(s)a is frequent in Dacian onomastics. Natoporus: a Thracian or Dacian name. A soldier Natopor is known from several ostraca found at Mons Claudianus in eastern Egypt. A Roman military diploma was issued in 127 in Mauretania Caesariensis for a Dacian soldier and his two children, a son Nattoporis and a daughter Duccidava. It is