NO-14 potsherd

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Object
Classification:	bowl
Archaeological type:	Fritzener Schale
Material:	pottery
Size:	height: 7.8 cm, rim diameter: 14 cm, maximum diameter: 15.8 cm, thickness: 5 mm
Condition:	fragmentary, restored
Archaeological culture:	La Tène A, La Tène B
Date:	5th–3rd centuries BC
Date derived from:	typology
Site:	Nonsberg / Val di Non (Trento, Bozen / Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Coordinates (approx.):	none
Find date:	before 1894
Find circumstances:	old finding
Current location:	Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.:	16.872
Inscription:	NO-14 (θṛ[)
Sources:	Franz 1957: 108 fig. 2

Commentary

Ceramic fragment.
Potsherd of a bowl type Fritzens. The present fragment is restored by composing two smaller fragments. Concerning an entire bowl type Fritzens less than half of a bowl is preserved. Fine clay, from brown to black in colour, with a moderate temper of fine grained sand; burnished; reduction firing. Below the rim a highly corroded iron ribbon (cp. MLR: 277: "altezza di 1,2 cm").
The above-mentioned dimensions result of the autopsy by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum. Marchesini indicates: "Alt max 9,3 cm; largh max 12 cm; spess max 0,5 cm" (cp. MLR: 277).
In the belly area four circumferential lines form an ornament band under them, in direction to the bottom of the bowl, vertical striae-decorations. Decorations before firing. Concerning the decoration shape cp. also the decorations of the other inscribed exemplar related to a bowl type Fritzens listed in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum.
On the bottom two preserved characters incised before firing. The characters correspond with the characters on the bottom of two other bowls (cp. in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum: RN-3, WE-7). Probably the characters θṛ[ (in original script: ]) present a factory mark.
Further information about the find circumstances are unknown. Only the Non Valley can be verified as findspot (cp. Franz 1957: 108). In 1956 the present fragment was rediscovered during the revision of the museum inventory (cp. Franz 1957: 105). According to the listed museum inventory the present fragment is preserved in the museum since 1894.
Due to the fact that the archaeological context of the present ceramic fragment is unknown, the age determination must be concerted with the typology of the bowls type Fritzens. In general, by comparing the different statements given by the various scholars, the Early as well as the beginnings of the Middle La Tène period can be connected with the duration of the bowls type Fritzens. Concerning the bowls type Fritzens the time around 500 BC is considered as time of origin. Lunz suggests a duration for the entire Middle La Tène period where Lang assumes an ending of the duration around the beginnings of the Middle La Tène period and Gleirscher supposes the ending already in the Early La Tène period (cp. Gamper 2006: 14–17).
Although the bowls type Fritzens, together with the Sanzeno bowls, are the key forms of the Fritzens-Sanzeno culture only two inscribed bowls are listed in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum (cp. in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum: IT-2 potsherd and the present fragment).
In the recently released study about the Raetic inscriptions by Marchesini the sherd is listed with "MLR 309" among the inscriptions with unknown provenance, an autopsy was effected (cp. MLR: 277 [MLR 309]).
Autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum in November 2013.

S.K.

Bibliography

Franz 1957	Leonhard Franz, "Südtiroler Reitia-Inschriften", Der Schlern 31 (1957), 105–109.
Gamper 2006	Peter Gamper, Die latènezeitliche Besiedlung am Ganglegg in Südtirol. Neue Forschungen zur Fritzens-Sanzeno-Kultur [= Internationale Archäologie 91], Rahden/Westfalen: Leidorf 2006.