FI-1 antler

edit with form

Object
Classification:	unknown
Material:	antler
Size:	preserved length 7 cm, height 3 cm
Condition:	incomplete, restored
Date:	4th–3rd century BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	Tesero (Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Sottopedonda
Archaeological context:	settlement of the Iron Age
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 17' 24.00" N, 11° 30' 28.80" E [from site]
Find date:	1981
Find circumstances:	rescue excavation
Current location:	Soprintendenza per i Beni librari, archivistici e archeologici della Provincia autonoma di Trento
Inventory Nr.:	TSP 81
Inscription:	FI-1 (ṣ a[/kakaka[(?)/θarani[?/saφ̣ạṇa/θ̣]arani[?)
Sources:	Silvestri 1983: 195–196, fig. 8 Dal Rì 1987: 175–176 (No. 724) Sebesta 1993: 10 Nothdurfter 2002: 1147 (list 2, No. 3) Roncador 2011: 645–646, fig. 7.22

Images

Object FI-1 antler with inscription FI-1 - line 2.

Object FI-1 antler with inscription FI-1 - line 1.

Object FI-1 antler with inscription FI-1 - line 3.

Object FI-1 antler with inscription FI-1 - line 4.

Object FI-1 antler with inscription FI-1 - line 5.

Commentary

Antler point, tube-shaped and full-round. Abraded and fire-blackened by an ancient fire like the lustre indicates. One side with regular border, the other side however broken.
Probably used as grip protection of a bronze tool, like Dal Rì suggests it due to the poriferous interior part which is perforated at the centre (Dal Rì 1987: 175). So arguable used as key grip like Nothdurfter explains it (Nothdurfter 2002: 1147).
Found in different fragments and restored by the monument protection service (Silvestri 1983: 195). Dal Rì and Roncador date the antler to the 4th–3rd centuries BC (Dal Rì 1987: 176, Roncador 2011: 646).
Utilized as votive bears an inscription in five lines.

Bibliography

Dal Rì 1987	Lorenzo Dal Rì, "Influssi etrusco-italici nella regione retico-alpina", in: Raffaele De Marinis (Ed.), Gli Etruschi a nord del Po, Mantova: Regione Lombardia - Provincia e Comune di Mantova 1987, 160–179.
Marchesini 2012	Simona Marchesini, "La ricezione di elementi culturali allogeni in ambito retico: Taranis in Val di Fiemme (TN)", in: –, Mode e modelli. Fortuna e insuccesso nella circolazione di cose e idee [= Officina Etruscologia 7], Roma: 2012, 177–190.
Marzatico 2001b	Franco Marzatico, "La seconda età del Ferro", in: Michele Lanzinger, Franco Marzatico, Annaluisa Pedrotti (Eds), Storia del Trentino. Vol. 1: La preistoria e la protostoria, Bologna: Il Mulino 2001, 479–573.