AS-2 potsherd

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Object
Classification:	vessel
Material:	pottery
Condition:	unknown
Date:	4th–2nd centuries BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	Rotzo (Vicenza, Veneto, Italy)
Field name:	Bostel
Archaeological context:	settlement (Objects: AS-1 potsherd, AS-2 potsherd, AS-3 potsherd, AS-4 potsherd, AS-12 needle, AS-15 beaker, AS-16 beaker, AS-17 potsherd, AS-18 potsherd, AS-19 beaker, AS-20 potsherd, AS-21 beaker, AS-22 beaker, AS-23 beaker)
Coordinates (approx.):	45° 51' 43.20" N, 11° 23' 49.20" E [from site]
Find date:	1881
Find circumstances:	stray find
Current location:	unknown (lost)
Inscription:	AS-2 (? iθθi)
Sources:	Fiorelli 1881: 154–155 Nalli 1895: 258 (No. 1) PID: 31–32 (No. 217)

Commentary

Fragment of a ceramic vessel.
On the fragment an inscription (cp. Fiorelli 1881: 154; Nalli 1895: 258; both publish the potsherd with particular focus on the inscription, however given only a transcription of the inscription).
Nalli mentions that the potsherd was found by himself together with a bone needle (cp. AS-13 needle) and the bottom of another ceramic vessel in the area of Bostel. But he gives no further information about find date or find context. The find year 1881 is mentioned by Whatmough (cp. PID: 31). However, Molon refers to the discoveries made by Agostino del Pozzo 1739. In this year Agostino del Pozzo discovered on his own land ("nella sua patria") the remains of the antique Raetic settlement ("le traccie di molte antiche costruzioni") in Bostel ("in comune di Rotzo (uno dei sette comuni), e precisamente in contrada del Bostel"). In this regard Molon mentions that "in questa medesima località furono raccolti (...) altri frammenti fittili, uno dei quali con segni (...)". Cp. Fiorelli 1881: 154.
Formerly the fragment was preserved in the small museum Museo (Alpino) di Asiago which was directed by Giuseppe Nalli (cp. Nalli 1895: 258). The entire material kept in the museum got lost during the bombardements of the war years 1915–1918 (cp. Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981: 10). In consequence the museum was not reconstructed. Therefore Whatmough's statement that the object is lost and the inscription only documented in form of the transcription given by Molon and Nalli, is comprehensible (cp. PID: 30; for Molon and Nalli cp. Fiorelli 1881: 154; Nalli 1895: 258). Also Pellegrini regrets the loss of the object and mentions the insufficient quality of Molon's and Nalli's transcription (cp. Pellegrini 1915: 122).
According to Leonardi and Ruta Serafini the analysis of the excavations and the material yields the following timeframe: related to the entire material and the residential structure discovered during the excavations of 1912 and 1969 only few facts date to the III periodo atestino. The major part dates to the 4th–2nd centuries BC (cp. Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981: 66). Therefore, due to the fact that the potsherd comes also from Bostel, a dating to the 4th–2nd centuries BC -analogous to the other findings from Bostel- is to be favoured.
Because of the fact that the object is lost, no autopsy by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum is possible. For this reason the indications follow the information given in literature (cp. below the bibliography).

S.K.

Bibliography

Fiorelli 1881	Giuseppe Fiorelli, "VII. Rotzo", Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità (1881), 154–155.
Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981	Giovanni Leonardi, Angela Ruta Serafini, "L'abitato protostorico di Rotzo (Altipiano di Asiago)", Preistoria Alpina 17 (1981), 7–75.