AS-12 needle

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Object
Classification:	needle
Archaeological type:	bone needle
Material:	bone
Size:	length 11 cm
Condition:	unknown
Date:	4th–2nd centuries BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	Rotzo (Vicenza, Veneto, Italy)
Field name:	Bostel
Archaeological context:	settlement (Objects: AS-1 potsherd, AS-2 potsherd, AS-3 potsherd, AS-4 potsherd, AS-12 needle, AS-15 beaker, AS-16 beaker, AS-17 potsherd, AS-18 potsherd, AS-19 beaker, AS-20 potsherd, AS-21 beaker, AS-22 beaker, AS-23 beaker)
Coordinates (approx.):	45° 51' 43.20" N, 11° 23' 49.20" E [from site]
Find date:	winter 1888/1889
Find circumstances:	survey
Current location:	unknown (lost)
Inscription:	AS-12 (?)
Sources:	Orsi 1890: 293 PID: 32–33 (No. 219 i)

Commentary

Bone needle.
Among the bone objects Orsi mentions two "aghi, rotti, lunghi (...), con corpo lanceolato e cruna ad un terzo di una delle estremità"' (cp. Orsi 1890: 293). With regard to Orsi's description the object is reminiscent of the bone points from the Ganglegg hill (cp. among others VN-9 bone point) or the exemplar from the Campi Neri. Therefore it is arguable if the present object is not a bone point too. Due to the loss of the object and the fact that there is no figure and/or photo of the object a definite statement is not possible any more. In the present data bank the object type has been adopted from the indication given by Orsi.
According to Pellegrini the characters on the bone needle are identical with the characters on a ceramic fragment from Bostel (see: AS-5 potsherd and AS-5; cp. Pellegrini 1915: 121).
The bone needle was found together with other objects, among others another bone needle (see above and Orsi's description in Orsi 1890: 293). This bone needle, length 12 cm, also of a longish form with a needle eye at one end, however does not bear characters (cp. for a register of the entire material: Orsi 1890: 293). The layman survey was executed by the owner of area, Luigia dal Pozzo, in hope for several archaeological findings, and then analysed by Orsi (cp. Orsi 1890: 293). It can be assumed that Luigia dal (or del) Pozzo was the descendant of Agostino del (or dal) Pozzo, the famous local scholar who discovered the antique settlement situated in Bostel on his own land in 1781. The results of these first surveys and excavations were published posthumously in 1820 (cp. Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981: 10; http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agostino_Dal_Pozzo).
Formerly the bone needle was preserved in the small museum Museo (Alpino) di Asiago. The entire material kept in the museum got lost during the bombardements of the war years 1915–1918 (cp. Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981: 10). As consequence the museum was not reconstructed.
According to Leonardi and Ruta Serafini the analysis of the excavations and the material yields the following timeframe: related to the entire material and the residential structure discovered during the excavations of 1912 and 1969 only few facts date to the III periodo atestino. The major part dates to the 4th–2nd centuries BC (cp. Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981: 66). Therefore, related to the bone needle, a dating to the 4th–2nd centuries BC -analogous to the other findings from Bostel- is to be favoured.
Due to the fact that the object is lost, no autopsy by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum is possible. The indications follow the information given in literature (cp. below the bibliography).

S.K.

Bibliography

Leonardi & Ruta Serafini 1981	Giovanni Leonardi, Angela Ruta Serafini, "L'abitato protostorico di Rotzo (Altipiano di Asiago)", Preistoria Alpina 17 (1981), 7–75.