SR-9 antler

edit with form

Object
Classification:	unidentifiable
Material:	antler
Size:	length min. 9 cm, length max. 10 cm, width 2.6 cm, thickness 0.7 cm+
Condition:	fragmentary, restored
Date:	3rd century BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	Serso (fraction of: Pergine Valsugana, Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Montesei di Serso
Archaeological context:	house No. 2 (Objects: SR-1 antler, SR-2 antler, SR-3 antler, SR-4 antler, SR-5 antler, SR-6 antler, SR-7 antler, SR-8 antler, SR-9 antler, SR-10 antler, SR-11 stone, SR-12 antler, SR-13 antler, SR-14 potsherd, SR-15 bowl)
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 4' 28.16" N, 11° 14' 39.44" E
Find date:	1964
Find circumstances:	excavation
Current location:	Museo delle Scienze di Trento (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.:	PEGO 45
Inscription:	SR-9 (?]θ̣ṣ́ieṛịṣna)
Sources:	Pellegrini & Sebesta 1965: 3–8, 14–15 (No. 9) with fig. Nothdurfter 2002: 1150 (list 3, No. 7)

Images

Object SR-9 antler with inscription SR-9.

Commentary

Antler point; highly fragmentary and corroded.
Along remains of an inscription from right to left. The object also bears min. three chevron-shaped marks , two on the narrow end below resp. before the inscription, one below . Cp. marks in the same shape on SR-3 antler and SR-6 antler.
Dal Rì dates the whole antler group from Montesei di Serso to the 3rd century BC (Dal Rì 1987: 176 (No. 725), whereas Schumacher suggets an older date to the 5th–4th centuries BC (Schumacher 2004: 247) and Pellegrini as well as Sebesta date the house No. 2 of Montesei di Serso, where the antlers were found, generally to the late Iron Age due to the typical house construction (Pellegrini & Sebesta 1965: 7).

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.