NO-18 bowl

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Object
Classification:	bowl
Archaeological type:	bowl with S-shaped profile
Material:	pottery
Size:	outside diameter 9.5 cm, height 8 cm
Condition:	restored
Date:	3rd–2nd centuries BC
Date derived from:	typology
Site:	Dercolo (fraction of: Campodenno, Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 14' 56.40" N, 11° 2' 49.20" E [from site]
Find date:
Find circumstances:	old finding, by chance
Current location:	Stadtmuseum Bozen / Museo Civico di Bolzano (repository)
Inventory Nr.:	431
Inscription:	NO-18 (?/?)
Sources:	IR: 290 (No. 82), fig. LIV c

Images

Object NO-18 bowl.

Object NO-18 bowl with inscription NO-18.

Commentary

Bowl with S-shaped profile.
Restored at two positions at the belly area, at the neck area as well as at the mouth rim. Fine clay of grey in colour with a moderate temper of fine grained sand and cast gold as well as argentine mica. Reduced firing. Compressed body, high and widely extended mouth rim; typical omphalos.
Between neck and body a decoration in form of a circumferential ribbon. On the belly further decoration: groups of striae which are arranged like metopes. In the middle of two striae-groups another decoration in form of a with a deep drilled hole in each triangle. The striae-decorations before firing.
On the bottom a high number of characters with probably doubtful status; the characters are evocative of the characters, also with doubtful status, of two other bowls from Dercolo (cp. NO-12 and EX-42; for the latter cp. here).
Further find circumstances like exact find place or find year are unknown (cp. below).
In accord with the typology the bowl can be dated to the 3rd–2nd centuries BC.
The present bowl was probably first published in IR: 290 (No. 82), however with particular regards to the inscription. According to Mancini the bowl was unpublished, however he indicates this statement as arguable. Mancini classifies the bowl into the group of objects from "Niclara nel Comune di Cortaccia" (cp. Entiklar / Niclara and Kurtatsch / Cortaccia; IR: 290 [No. 82]). In consequence of Mancini, Schumacher arranges the inscription into the group of objects from Bozen / Bolzano with the siglum BoZen (cp. Schumacher 2004: 183, BZ-18). However, the present bowl presents one of the discoveries from Dercolo, therefore from the Non Valley, as the study and autopsy by the team of the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum have shown. The number of the index card is 431 (cp. the relevant images above). It is arguable if this number is identical with the inventory number. There is also the catalogue number 255 related to the present bowl. Before the reduction of the archaeological section at the Bozen Municipal Museum the bowl was in the permanent exhibition. There are also two other almost identical bowls with omphalos recorded at the Bozen Municipal Museum (index card numbers 430 and 433). According to the information given by the index cards both come also from Dercolo. However, these two bowls were preserved at the Castello del Buonconsiglio: bowl with number 430 = inventory number 3446 = NO-12 bowl as well as bowl with number 433 = inventory number 3445. So far this bowl is indicated in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum with EX-42 [resp. EX-42 bowl] because this bowl was excluded due to the pseudo-script characters.

Object NO-12 bowl with inscription NO-12.

Object EX-42 bowl.

On both bowls -NO-12 bowl and EX-42 bowl- stored at the Castello del Buonconsiglio are still visible attached labels with the old numbers hence 430 and 433. Also the index cards of the Castello del Buonconsiglio related to these two bowls note the (former) property of the Bozen Municipal Museum. Further information about the translocation of the bowls from the museum Bolzano to the Castello del Buonconsiglio cannot be clearly verified anymore. For further information related to the entire context cp. Dercolo.
According to Schindler the pottery found in Dercolo indicates a point of presence during the Middle and Late La Tène period (cp. Schindler 1998: 224). This age determination corresponds also with the typology of the bowl. The index cards, neither of the museum Bolzano nor of the Castello del Buonconsiglio, indicate information about the find circumstances. Concerning the well-known find year of the hoard from Dercolo, 1883, and the age of the index cards, it can be assumed that the bowl was found also in this timeframe, i.e. around the turn of the century or during the first half of the 20th century.
Autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum in September 2014.

S.K.

Bibliography

IR	Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.