PU-1 girdle plate

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Object
Proper name:	Gürtelblech von Lothen
Classification:	girdle plate
Material:	bronze
Size:	length: 37.3 cm, width: 10.4 cm, thickness: 0.2 mm
Condition:	complete
Date:	beginning of the 5th century BC
Date derived from:	typology
Site:	Lothen / Campolino (fraction of: St. Lorenzen / San Lorenzo di Sebato, Bozen / Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Burgkofel
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 47' 34.80" N, 11° 53' 13.20" E [from site]
Find date:	1940
Find circumstances:	construction works
Current location:	Museum Mansio Sebatum (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.:	none
Inscription:	PU-1 (χa?φelzurieskalahepruśiahil(?)/klu?θurus)
Sources:	Lunz 1981: 201, fig. 86 Dal Rì 1987: 177–178 (No. 730), fig. 304 Morandi 1999: 49-51 (No. 7) Steiner 2011b: 598–599

Images

Object PU-1 girdle plate - front side.

Object PU-1 girdle plate with inscription PU-1 - rear side.

Commentary

Bronze girdle plate.
Complete, with figural decorations. The central scene composed by a figural depiction of two deer. The deer on the right end with large antlers looks downwards, which probably indicates grazing. Around the central scene a frame made of fine grooves.
The above-mentioned dimensions result from the autopsy by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum. The indications given in the specialised literature differ partly: Cp. e.g. Dal Rì 1987: 177 ("Lungh. cm 35; largh. cm 12; spess. cm 0,07"; in succession Morandi 1999: 49, "Misura in lunghezza cm 35.") or Steiner 2011b: 598 ("Lungh. cm 32; largh. cm 10,4").
On the back side an inscription.
According to the information given by the official museum page, the girdle plate was found in 1940, during construction works, below the Burgkofel. Cp. also: Lunz 1973b: 21; Steiner 2011b: 598–599. In contrast to this indication Morandi notes 1948 as find year (cp. Morandi 1999: 49).
Due to the figural decoration working, which closely resembles the typology of the situlae, the girdle plate from Lothen can be dated to the 5th century BC.
Schumacher indicates the Stadtmuseum Bozen / Museo Civico di Bolzano as depository (with inventory nr. 2168; cp. Schumacher 2004: 186). However, when the team of Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum studied and autopsied the inscriptions preserved in the museum, they realized that the girdle plate is no longer part of the museum inventory. Instead, the girdle plate is now preserved and shown at the local permanent exhibition of the Museum Mansio Sebatum. See the official page of the museum (as of October 30, 2014). Presumably, the girdle plate is now under the ownership of the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano.
Autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum in June 2015.

S.K.

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.
Lunz 1973b	Reimo Lunz, Ur- und Frühgeschichte Südtirols. Rätsel und Deutung, Bozen: Verlagsanstalt Athesia 1973.
Lunz 1981	Reimo Lunz, Archäologie Südtirols. Von den Jägern des Mesolithikums (um 7000 v. Chr.) bis zum Ende des Weströmischen Reiches (476 n. Chr.) [= Archäologische Forschungen in Tirol 7], Calliano (Trento): 1981.