PU-5 bone

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Object
Classification:	unidentifiable
Material:	bone
Size:	length 6.7 cm
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	Late Iron Age
Date:	5th–4th centuries BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	St. Lorenzen / San Lorenzo di Sebato (Bozen / Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Steger
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 46' 55.20" N, 11° 54' 14.40" E [from site]
Find date:	1982
Find circumstances:	excavation
Current location:	unknown
Inscription:	PU-5 (ṿakụ)
Sources:	Marinetti 1992: 692–693 [No. 1], fig. 1.1 Constantini 2002: 41

Commentary

Animal bone, not further classified.
Broken at one end.
Along a dextroverse inscription composed of 4 characters. The missing part of the bone does not affect the inscription.
The bone comes from the excavations executed by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto and directed by the Museo Nazionale Atestino in 1982 on the hill Steger (cp. Marinetti 1992: 691, fn. 1).
The age determination to the Late Iron Age, i.e. from the 5th to the 1st centuries BC, corresponds to the cultural context of the Raetic inscriptions.
In 1992 Marinetti published the findings from the Steger from 1982 for the first time whereas the inscriptions on the objects are central. In Marinetti's study the number "IG 142070" is indicated (cp. Marinetti 1992: 692). This number does not refer to an inventory number of the Museo Nazionale Atestino as assumed by Schumacher and Mancini (cp. Schumacher 2004: 187 [PU-5]; LIR: 18 [SLO-4]), but it is the identification number given during the excavations by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto. In consultation with the Museo Nazionale Atestino, findings from the Steger were never preserved in the museum. However, amongst the documents given to the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano when several findings from the Steger found 1982 were committed from the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto to the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano in 2010, can be found a document which attested that the object with number "IG 142070" was collected by dott.ssa Baggio, the former directress of the Museo Nazionale Atestino. The objects given from the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto to the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano in 2010 are now presented in the permanent exhibition of the Museum Mansio Sebatum in St. Lorenzen / San Lorenzo di Sebato (cp. in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum: PU-8 potsherd, PU-9 potsherd, PU-10 potsherd and PU-11 stone). In the recently released study about the Raetic inscriptions by Marchesini the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano is indicated as repository (cp. MLR: 146 [MLR 130]). As explained above this indication is not correct. However, the current location of the object is unknown resp. uncertain so far.
So far not autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum. The indications follow the information given in literature (cp. below the bibliography) and the advices kindly provided by the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano as well as the Museo Nazionale Atestino.
The dating follows Constantini 2002: 41.

S.K.

Bibliography

Constantini 2002	Raffaela Constantini, Sebatum [= Città romane 4], Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider 2002. Atlante tematico di topografia antica; XII Supplemento
LIR	Alberto Mancini, Le Iscrizioni Retiche [= Quaderni del dipartimento di linguistica, Università degli studi di Firenze Studi 8–9], Padova: Unipress 2009–10. (2 volumes)
Marinetti 1992	Anna Marinetti, "Documenti epigrafici da St. Lorenzen (Val Pusteria, Bolzano). Epigraphische Zeugnisse aus St. Lorenzen (Pustertal, Bozen)", in: Ingrid R. Metzger, Paul Gleirscher, Die Räter / I Reti [= Schriftenreihe der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Alpenländer, Neue Folge 4], Bozen: Athesia 1992, 691–700.