BZ-4 fragment

edit with form

Object
Classification:	vessel
Material:	bronze
Size:	height 4 cm, diameter max.10.8 cm, diameter min. 6 cm
Condition:	fragmentary
Site:	Bozen / Bolzano (Bozen / Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Moritzing / San Maurizio
Archaeological context:	hoard (Objects: BZ-4 fragment, BZ-8 situla, BZ-9 handle)
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 30' 14.62" N, 11° 19' 3.00" E
Find date:	1858/60
Current location:	Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Antikensammlung (repository)
Inventory Nr.:	Fr. 1810
Inscription:	BZ-4 (tevaśniχesiutikuθiuθisaχvilititerisnaθi)
Sources:	Mayr 1960c: 126–127 Egg 1992: 156–158, fig. 5,1, pl. 4.2, pl. 8 Steiner 2002: 254–258, 314, pl. 38,4

Images

Object BZ-4 fragment.	Object BZ-4 fragment with inscription BZ-4.	Object BZ-4 fragment with inscription BZ-4.	Object BZ-4 fragment with inscription BZ-4.	Object BZ-4 fragment with inscription BZ-4.
Object BZ-4 fragment with inscription BZ-4.	Object BZ-4 fragment.

Commentary

Fragment of a bronze vessel.
Patina of medium to dark green in colour, partially embedded particles of ochre to brown in colour.
Seamless worked of thin sheet bronze. Cylindrical basis which passes to a wide expansive and funnel-shaped ‚mouth rim‘. For reinforcement the rim is turned up. Two rivet holes. Broken at two positions of which the crack at one position comprises the entire height of the fragment. Here partially the narrow part broken. At one position inside along the mouth trace of a sharp-edged cut. Outside of the narrow section traces of abrasion as well as a clear ledge.
Inside along the mouth an inscription.
BZ-4 copy is a cast of this object, see there. The copy of the fragment preserved at the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum is here declared as a fragment of a bronze vessel with bull’s head handles. The identification indeed is arguable. However Egg indicates amongst others the following fragments of bronze vessels between the findings of Moritzing / San Maurizio: fragment of a bronze vessel which Egg identifies as part of the mouth of a cone-shaped amphora, a fragment of a bronze vessel which belongs to the group of pots with bull’s head handles and BZ-4 fragment of which the identification is uncertain (cp. Egg 1992: 138, No. 3 and 4, 139, No. 15, 154-162, pl. 4.1, pl. 4.2, pl. 4.3).
Autopsied by TIR in April 2014.

Discussion about the vessel: part of the foot or the mouth?; cp. Egg 1992
Find circumstances: cp. Egg 1992 as well as Steiner 2002

Bibliography

Egg 1992	Markus Egg, "Ein eisenzeitlicher Altfund von Schloß Greifenstein bei Siebeneich in Südtirol", in: Andreas Lippert, Konrad Spindler (Eds), Festschrift zum 50jährigen Bestehen des Institutes für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck [= Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 8], Bonn: 1992, 135–172.