NO-12 bowl

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Object
Classification:	bowl
Archaeological type:	Sanzeno-Schale
Material:	pottery
Size:	height 5.1 cm, mouth diameter 9.6 cm
Condition:	restored
Archaeological culture:	La Tène C, La Tène D
Site:	Dercolo (fraction of: Campodenno, Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 14' 56.40" N, 11° 2' 49.20" E [from site]
Find date:
Find circumstances:	old finding, by chance
Current location:	Castello del Buonconsiglio (repository)
Inventory Nr.:	3446
Inscription:	NO-12 (is?(?)(?)?n$)
Sources:	IR: 287 (No. 76), pl. LII, fig. c

Images

Object NO-12 bowl with inscription NO-12.

Object NO-12 bowl with inscription NO-12.

Commentary

Sanzeno bowl.
Fine clay; light brown in colour, with a moderate temper of fine grained sand and cast gold; reduction firing; slightly burnished. High and sharply distinct neck, widely extended mouth rim and the typical omphalos. The bowl was incomplete; a piece in the area of the belly until the mouth rim was missing, however now this part is restored. Also a fracture for almost the half of the bowl.
Between neck and body a decoration in form of two circumferential ribbons. No further decoration visible.
On the bottom outside characters with probably doubtful status; the characters are evocative of the characters, also with doubtful status, of two other bowls from Dercolo (cp. NO-18 and EX-42; for the latter cp. here).
Further find circumstances like exact find place or find year are unknown (cp. below).
In accord with the typology the bowl can be dated to the 3rd–2nd centuries BC.
The present bowl was probably first published in IR: 287 (No. 76), however with particular regards to the inscription. The inventory number, "Inv. n. 3446", given by Mancini is correct (cp. IR: 287; however, Mancini refers to the Museo Nazionale Trento, the former name of the Castello del Buonconsiglio), therefore the inventory number indicated by Schumacher is erroneous (MPA 6409; cp. Schumacher 2004: 152. Note: The abbreviation "MPA" (Museo Provinciale d'Arte) refers to a further former name of the Castello del Buonconsiglio).
In the past this bowl was in the property of the museum in Bolzano (listed with index card number 430; cp. the relevant images above). The old label which indicates the number 430 is even today visible on the bowl. Further information about the translocation of the bowl from the museum Bolzano to the Castello del Buonconsiglio cannot be clearly verified anymore. Therefore, the following applies: NO-12 bowl / NO-12 = inv. No. 3446 = index card No. 430.
The bowl must put into a close connection with NO-18 bowl / NO-18 or EX-42 whereas the latter was excluded from the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum due to the pseudo-script characters. According to Schindler the pottery found in Dercolo indicates a point of presence during the Middle and Late La Tène period (cp. Schindler 1998: 224). This age determination corresponds also with the typology of the bowl. The index cards, neither of the museum Bolzano nor of the Castello del Buonconsiglio, indicate information about the find circumstances. Concerning the well-known find year of the hoard from Dercolo, 1883, and the age of the index cards, it can be assumed that the bowl was found also in this timeframe, i.e. around the turn of the century or during the first half of the 20th century.
Autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum in October 2014.

S.K.

Bibliography

IR	Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.