SZ-63 antler

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Object
Classification:	handle
Material:	antler
Size:	length: 8 cm, width: 2.3 cm, height: 1.2 cm
Condition:	incomplete, damaged
Archaeological culture:	Late Iron Age
Date:	5th–1st centuries BC
Date derived from:	cultural context
Site:	Sanzeno (Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 21' 57.60" N, 11° 4' 30.00" E [from site]
Find date:	unknown
Find circumstances:	old finding
Current location:	Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.:	13.533
Inscriptions:	SZ-63.1 (iiṿ) SZ-63.2 (a)
Sources:	IR: 281 [No. 62], pl. XLIX, fig. c Nothdurfter 2002: 1150 [list 3, No. 8]

Images

Object SZ-63 antler with inscriptions SZ-63.1 and SZ-63.2.

Commentary

Antler fragment.
Probably handle of a knife or another tool.
Incomplete extant. Damaged and partly splintered in the wider area. Whitish-beige coloured; round cross section; smoothed surface; both ends rounded. At the narrow end sawed-trough a little.
The above-mentioned dimensions result of the autopsy by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum. Mancini notes: "Dimensioni: lunghezza mm. 82, larghezza 23–19" (cp. IR: 281); Marchesini indicates: "Lungh max con 7,9 cm; spess max cons 2 cm" (cp. MLR: 200).
On both longsides decoration in form of dice eyes. On the wider end three deep parallel incisions where from the interior one depart two deep obliques. Most likely these incisions must be considered as part of the decoration. However Mancini proposes a reading of these: or (cp. IR: 281; and again in LIR: 108 [SA-46]). In succession also Schumacher incorporates the incisions with the siglum SZ-63 (cp. Schumacher 2004: 147 [SZ-63]; the incisions refer to SZ-63 rechts and Schumacher reads ).
On the narrow end a single character.
Further find circumstances unknown. The antler piece presents one of the old findings from Sanzeno which were found by the local inhabitants at the turn of the 19th century to the 20th century in Sanzeno. The major part of these findings were acquired by the Tyrolean State Museum in the course of the turn of the century, hence the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
The dating to the Late Iron Age is reasoned by the general valuation of the findings made in Sanzeno from the 5th to the 1st centuries BC (cp. Fogolari 1960: 304).
Doubts in matters of the material: Mancini notes "Frammento di osso (o di corno) bianco" (cp. IR: 281 [No. 62]; and again in LIR: 108 [SA-46]: "Frammento di osso (o corno?)"). In succession Nothdurfter mentions the two possibilities: antler or bone (cp. Nothdurfter 2002: 1150). Marchesini notes: "probabile immanicatura di corno di cervo" (cp. MLR: 200). In the museum the object is described as made of bone.
In the recently released study about the Raetic inscriptions by Marchesini the antler handle is listed with "MLR 214", an autopsy was effected (cp. MLR: 200 [MLR 214]).
Autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum in November 2013.

S.K.

Bibliography

Fogolari 1960	Giulia Fogolari, "Sanzeno nell'Anaunia", in: Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Province di Romagna (Eds), Civiltà del Ferro. Studi pubblicati nella ricorrenza centenaria della scoperta di Villanova [= Documenti e studi VI], Bologna: Forni 1960, 265–321.
IR	Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.
LIR	Alberto Mancini, Le Iscrizioni Retiche [= Quaderni del dipartimento di linguistica, Università degli studi di Firenze Studi 8–9], Padova: Unipress 2009–10. (2 volumes)