Since the pottery, or "kernos", was found in 1880, many translations have been proposed. By 1983, more than fifty different explanations of the meaning had been put forward. Due to the lack of a large body of archaic Latin, and the method by which Romans abbreviated their inscriptions, scholars have not been able to produce a singular translation that has been accepted by historians as accurate. However thanks to Arthur E. Gordon's work the reading of the text can be now considered certain.