AS-13 needle

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Object
Classification:	needle
Archaeological type:	bone needle
Material:	bone
Condition:	unknown
Date:	4th–2nd centuries BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	Rotzo (Vicenza, Veneto, Italy)
Field name:	Bostel
Coordinates (approx.):	45° 51' 43.20" N, 11° 23' 49.20" E [from site]
Find date:	1881
Find circumstances:	stray find
Current location:	unknown (lost)
Inscription:	AS-13 (?)
Sources:	Nalli 1895: 258 (No. 3) PID: 32–33 (No. 219 ii)

Commentary

Bone needle.
Nalli mentions only "un (sic!) spilla in osso" (cp. Nalli 1895: 258). By comparing with similar objects e.g. VN-9 bone point, 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 Nalli.
On the bone needle a single character. Nalli publishes the bone needle with particular focus on the inscription, however given only a transcription of the inscription (cp. Nalli 1895: 258). Pellegrini compares this character with the first character of the other bone needle from Rotzo (cp. AS-12 needle and AS-12; for Pellegrini's note cp. Pellegrini 1915: 121, fn. 2).
According to Nalli's indications related to the potsherd it can be assumed that also this bone needle was found by himself together with the bottom of a ceramic vessel and the bottom of another ceramic vessel. But, related to these findings he gives no further information about find date or find context. The find year 1881 mentioned by Whatmough, however referred to AS-2 potsherd can be also assumed in according to Nalli's note concerning the discovery.
Formerly the bone needle was preserved in the small museum Museo (geologico e preistorico) di Asisago resp. Museo (Alpino) di Asiago which was directed by Giuseppe Nalli (cp. Nalli 1895: 258). 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, due to the fact that the bone needle derives also from Bostel, a dating to the 4th–2nd centuries BC is to be favoured.
Because of 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.