SR-1 antler

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Object
Classification:	unidentifiable
Material:	antler
Size:	length: 13.7 cm, width: 3.6 cm, height: 5 mm
Condition:	fragmentary, incomplete, restored
Date:	3rd century BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	Serso (fraction of: Pergine Valsugana, Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Montesei di Serso
Archaeological context:	house No. 2 (Objects: SR-1 antler, SR-2 antler, SR-3 antler, SR-4 antler, SR-5 antler, SR-6 antler, SR-7 antler, SR-8 antler, SR-9 antler, SR-10 antler, SR-11 stone, SR-12 antler, SR-13 antler, SR-14 potsherd, SR-15 bowl)
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 4' 28.16" N, 11° 14' 39.44" E
Find date:	1964
Find circumstances:	excavation
Current location:	Museo delle Scienze di Trento (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.:	PEGO 44
Inscription:	SR-1 (?]nsu·mnaviθahur·̣/ị]ṣkesaχviliṣke)
Sources:	Pellegrini & Sebesta 1965: 3–8, 8 (No. 1), fig. 3 Dal Rì 1987: 176 (No. 725a) Nothdurfter 2002: 1149 (list 3, No. 7)

Images

Object SR-1 antler with inscription SR-1.

Commentary

Antler point of a fallow deer (arguable!). Curved, sawed through and perforated on both ends.
Along an inscription in two lines, one from right to left, the other from left to right.
Dal Rì dates the whole antler group from Montesei di Serso to the 3rd century BC, whereas Schumacher suggets an older date to the 5th–4th centuries BC (Schumacher 2004: 247) and Pellegrini as well as Sebesta date the house No. 2 of Montesei di Serso, where the antlers were found, generally to the late Iron Age due to the typical house construction (Pellegrini & Sebesta 1965: 7).
The only antler section of the hole group from Montesei di Serso which is taken from a fallow deer (Dama dama). The other antler points come from the species of (red) deer (Cervus elaphus) which presents the largest deer species.
In Dalmeri & Nicolodi 2004 a good picture of the restored antler (Dalmeri & Nicolodi 2004: fig. 15).

S.K.

Bibliography

Dalmeri & Nicolodi 2004	Giampaolo Dalmeri, Francesca Nicolodi, "Siti e collezioni antropologiche, preistoriche e protostoriche provinciali del Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali (verifica di archivio riferita al 1998)", Preistoria Alpina 40 (2004), 63–81.
Dal Rì 1987	Lorenzo Dal Rì, "Influssi etrusco-italici nella regione retico-alpina", in: Raffaele De Marinis (Ed.), Gli Etruschi a nord del Po, Mantova: Regione Lombardia - Provincia e Comune di Mantova 1987, 160–179.