AS-1 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:	winter 1888/1889
Find circumstances:	survey
Current location:	unknown (lost)
Inscription:	AS-1 (?)
Sources:	Orsi 1890: 293–294 PID: 30–31 (No. 216)

Commentary

Fragment of a ceramic vessel.
According to Orsi "il fondo di una grande pentola" (cp. Orsi 1890: 293), according to Whatmough probably the bottom of a "pentola or two-handled vessel" (cp. PID: 30).
Also the inscription fragmentary.
The fragment was found among different fragments of greek vessels. The layman survey was executed by the owner of area, Luigia dal Pozzo, in hope for several archaeological findings, and then analysed by Orsi (cp. Orsi 1890: 293). It can be assumed that Luigia dal (or del) Pozzo was the descendant of Agostino del (or dal) Pozzo, the famous local scholar who discovered the antique settlement situated in Bostel on his own land in 1781. The results of these first surveys and excavations were published posthumously in 1820 (cp. Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981: 10; http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agostino_Dal_Pozzo).
Formerly the fragment was preserved in the small museum Museo (Alpino) di Asiago. 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 unfortunately lost (cp. PID: 30), is comprehensible.
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, related to the potsherd, a dating to the 4th–2nd centuries BC -analogous to the other findings from Bostel- is to be favoured.
Due to the fact that the object is lost, no autopsy by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum is possible. Therefore the indications follow the information given in literature (cp. below the bibliography).

S.K.

Bibliography

Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981	Giovanni Leonardi, Angela Ruta Serafini, "L'abitato protostorico di Rotzo (Altipiano di Asiago)", Preistoria Alpina 17 (1981), 7–75.