VR-3 spit

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Object
Proper name:	Spada di Verona, Spiedo di Ca' dei Cavri
Classification:	spit
Material:	bronze
Size:	length 56 cm
Condition:	damaged
Date:	uncertain
Date derived from:	unknown
Site:	Ca' dei Cavri (fraction of: Bussolengo, Verona, Veneto, Italy)
Coordinates (approx.):	45° 26' 49.20" N, 10° 53' 6.00" E [from site]
Find date:	1672
Current location:	Museo Miniscalchi Erizzo (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.:	none
Inscription:	VR-3 (taniniutikuremieshiratasuvakhikvelisanes)

Commentary

Published in Rossi 1672: 404–407. Examined by TIR in November 2015.

The object, erroneously called a "spada" (sword), was long only known from Rossi's publication in a catalogue of Conte Lodovico Moscardo's collection of antiquities. After the rediscovery by Marinetti in the 1980s, it was identified as a skewer of the sort which was used in ritual feasts by Salzani 1984: 793. Salzani compares the piece to similar ones from Padova and Magdalenska gora (the latter longer than the Verona spit; Weiss 1999c: 66, fig. 66 a–b). Cf. now also the similar spit bearing a Camunic inscription from Sabbio Chiese (Baioni et al. 2022: 770–771).

Salzani 1984: 781 dates the Spada to the early 4^th century, to which the Slovenian specimen can be dated by context (also Gambacurta et al. 2002: 185 [no. 19]). De Marinis 1988: 121, however, lists the Spada among inscribed objects dated to the 5^th century; Marinetti herself (Marinetti 1987: 138 f. [n. 5]) dates it as early as the 6^th–5^th century.

The find place is indicated as Ca' dei Cavri, a fraction of Bussolengo, in the original publication (p. 404 "Campagna Caudina"); if this is accurate, the Spada is the only object with a Raetic inscription from the right bank of the Adige south of Trento.

Bibliography

Baioni et al. 2022	Marco Baioni, Raffaella Poggiani Keller, Anna Marinetti, "Santuari e percorsi cultuali dell'età del Ferro nella Valle del Chiese", in: Raffaele C. de Marinis, Marta Rapi (eds), Preistoria e Protostoria in Lombardia e Canton Ticino [= Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 72], Firenze: Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria 2022, 765–775.
De Marinis 1988	Raffaele De Marinis, "Le popolazioni alpine di stirpe retica", in: Anna Maria Chieco Bianchi (Ed.), Italia Omnium Terrarum Alumna. La civiltà dei Veneti, Reti, Liguri, Celti, Piceni, Umbri, Latini, Campani e Japigi [= Antica Madre 11], Milano: 1988, 101–130.
Gambacurta et al. 2002	Giovanna Gambacurta, Daniela Locatelli, Luigi Malnati, Patrizia Manessi, Anna Marinetti, Giovanna Luisa Ravagnan (Eds), "Catalogo. Veneti antichi. Alfabeti e documenti", in: Giovanna Gambacurta, Daniela Locatelli, Luigi Malnati, Patrizia Manessi, Anna Marinetti, Giovanna Luisa Ravagnan (Eds), Akeo. I tempi della scrittura. Veneti antichi: alfabeti e documenti, 157–275.
Marinetti 1987	Anna Marinetti, "L'iscrizione retica (PID 247) da Ca' dei Cavri (Verona)", in: Alessandra Aspes (Ed.), Prima della Storia. Inediti di 10 anni di ricerche a Verona, Verona: Museo Civico di Storia Naturale 1987, 131–140.