PU-8 potsherd

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Object
Classification:	vessel
Material:	pottery
Size:	height 3.5 cm, width 6 cm
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	Late Iron Age
Date:	5th–4th centuries BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	St. Lorenzen / San Lorenzo di Sebato (Bozen / Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Steger
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 46' 55.20" N, 11° 54' 14.40" E [from site]
Find date:	1982
Find circumstances:	excavation
Current location:	Museum Mansio Sebatum (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.:	80062
Inscription:	PU-8 (ṃṿạḳ[)
Sources:	Marinetti 1992: 696 [No. 4], fig. 1.4 Constantini 2002: 41

Commentary

Fragment of a ceramic vessel.
The vessel type cannot be further classified. Grey in colour. Remains of wave moulding.
Outside on the bottom an inscription composed of 4 characters. It is imaginable that on the missing part of the vessel were further characters.
The ceramic fragment comes from the excavations executed by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto and directed by the Museo Nazionale Atestino in 1982 on the hill Steger (cp. Marinetti 1992: 691, fn. 1).
The age determination to the Late Iron Age, i.e. from the 5th to the 1st centuries BC, corresponds to the cultural context of the Raetic inscriptions.
In 1992 Marinetti published the findings from the Steger from 1982 for the first time whereas the inscriptions on the objects are central. In Marinetti's study the number "IG 80065" is indicated (cp. Marinetti 1992: 696). This number does not refer to an inventory number of the Museo Nazionale Atestino as assumed by Schumacher and Mancini (cp. Schumacher 2004: 188 [PU-8]; LIR: 20–21 [SLO-7]), but it is the identification number given during the excavations by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto. In consultation with the Museo Nazionale Atestino, findings from the Steger were never preserved in the museum. In 2010 several findings from the Steger found 1982, amongst the present potsherd, were committed from the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto to the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano. These objects are now presented in the permanent exhibition of the Museum Mansio Sebatum in St. Lorenzen / San Lorenzo di Sebato (cp. in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum: present potsherd, PU-9 potsherd, PU-10 potsherd and PU-11 stone). In the recently released study about the Raetic inscriptions by Marchesini the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano is indicated as repository (cp. MLR: 147 [MLR 132]). However, an autopsy of the fragment resp. the inscription was not effected. Moreover, as evinced in the case of the visit of the Museum Mansio Sebatum in St. Lorenzen / San Lorenzo di Sebato this indication is not correct. In consultation with the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano the identification number given by Marinetti is also incorrect. The current inventory number based on the identification number is "80062" as indicated above.
So far not autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum. The indications follow the information given in literature (cp. below the bibliography) and the advices kindly provided by the Amt für Bodendenkmäler Bozen / Ufficio Beni archeologici Bolzano and the Museo Nazionale Atestino.
The dating follows Constantini 2002: 41.

S.K.

Bibliography

Constantini 2002	Raffaela Constantini, Sebatum [= Città romane 4], Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider 2002. Atlante tematico di topografia antica; XII Supplemento
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)
Marinetti 1992	Anna Marinetti, "Documenti epigrafici da St. Lorenzen (Val Pusteria, Bolzano). Epigraphische Zeugnisse aus St. Lorenzen (Pustertal, Bozen)", in: Ingrid R. Metzger, Paul Gleirscher, Die Räter / I Reti [= Schriftenreihe der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Alpenländer, Neue Folge 4], Bozen: Athesia 1992, 691–700.