SR-3 antler

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Object
Classification:	unidentifiable
Material:	antler
Size:	length: 10.4 cm, width: 3 cm, height: 10 mm
Condition:	fragmentary, 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 (repository)
Inventory Nr.:	PEGO 49
Inscriptions:	SR-3.1 (aruśnas) SR-3.2 (?]ṿilna)
Sources:	Pellegrini & Sebesta 1965: 3–8, 10–11 (No. 3), fig. 5 Dal Rì 1987: 176 (No. 725c) Nothdurfter 2002: 1150 (list 3, No. 7)

Images

Object SR-3 antler with inscriptions SR-3.1 and SR-3.2.

Object SR-3 antler - detail.

Commentary

Antler point; curved, the narrow end is broken. Perforated on the wider end.
Along an inscription in two lines. The object also bears two chevron-shaped marks on the broad end below and before the inscription. Cp. marks in the same shape on SR-6 antler and SR-9 antler.
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).

S.K.

Bibliography

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.