BZ-5 handle

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Object
Classification:	vessel
Archaeological type:	Rippenziste
Material:	bronze
Size:	preserved length 12.2 cm, potential length about 14 cm, thickness 0.3 cm+
Condition:	restored
Archaeological culture:	La Tène A, La Tène B
Date:	5th–3rd centuries BC
Date derived from:	typology
Site:	Siebeneich / Settequerce (fraction of: Terlan / Terlano, Bozen / Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Greifensteiner Hang
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 30' 36.00" N, 11° 16' 26.40" E [from site]
Find date:	spring 1985
Find circumstances:	excavation for the purposes of construction works
Current location:	Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano (repository)
Inventory Nr.:	none
Inscription:	BZ-5 ($ lah)
Sources:	Lunz 1985: 145–146, pl. XXXVII, fig. 9.12

Images

Object BZ-5 handle.

Object BZ-5 handle with inscription BZ-5.

Commentary

Bronze handle.
Lateral handle of a bronze ribbed cista. Patina from green to dark green in colour with light brown patches. One side the handle is broken immediately after the handle area therefore the vertical piece and the handle attachment are missing.
No decorations visible.
On the outside of the handle characters.
The handle was found during the excavation proceeded in spring 1985. The excavation was executed for the purposes of construction works: Along the border wall of the farm Großkornellhof and the farm Steinerhof in the area of the Greifensteiner Hang a water pipe was laid and therefore a distance of 500 meters along the wall was explored. Altogether 25 different findspots were discovered. The handle was one of the findings from the excavated material of the middle section of the ditch (cp. Lunz 1985: 145).
Due to the fact that the handle is a lateral handle of a bronze ribbed pail the age determination follows the typology of this type of bronze vessel. The ribbed cistae date to the period from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BC (cp. Lunz 1985: 145).
Schumacher states the Landesmuseum Schloss Tirol / Museo Storico di Castel Tirolo as depository of the handle (cp. Schumacher 2004: 179). However, the study and autopsy by the team of the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum have shown that the bronze handle is preserved in the monument protection service of Bozen.
Autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum in November 2014.

S.K.

Bibliography

Lunz 1985	Reimo Lunz, "Eine neue "rätische" Inschrift aus Siebeneich", in: Assessorato alla Cultura del Comune di Bolzano (Ed.), Scavi nella conca di Bolzano e nella Bassa Atesina 1976–1985. Ausgrabungen im Raum Bozen und Unterland 1976–1985, Bolzano: 1985, 143–147.