SZ-54 bowl

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Object
Classification: bowl
Archaeological type: Sanzeno-Schale
Material: pottery
Size: height: 6.6 cm, rim diameter: 9.6 cm, maximum diameter: 9.7 cm, base diameter: 2.6 cm, thickness: 4 mm
Condition: complete, restored, damaged
Date: 3rd–2nd centuries BC
Date derived from: typology

Site: Sanzeno (Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Coordinates (approx.): 46° 21' 57.60" N, 11° 4' 30.00" E [from site]
Find date: 22.05.1901
Find circumstances: excavation
Current location: Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.: 11.949

Inscription: SZ-54 (iiiiiịθ̣a)

Sources: IR: 277–278 [No. 53], pl. XLVII, fig. a, b, c

Commentary

Sanzeno bowl.
Fine clay, from brown to grey in colour; outside and inside at the bottom blackened by fire. Moderate tempered of fine grained sand and cast gold; reduction firing; burnished. High neck and the typical omphalos. In the neck area restored.
The above-mentioned dimensions result of the autopsy by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum. Mancini indicates a "Tazza di tipo Sanzeno, con omphalos, di mm. 61 x 98" (cp. IR: 277). Marchesini notes: "Diam orlo 9,8 cm; alt 6,5 cm" (cp. MLR: 197).
Between neck and belly decoration in form of two parallel, circumferential ribbons. Below further decorations: at four positions a group of strokes at which the number of strokes is alternating between 11 and 20 strokes. Decorations before firing.
On the transition from the belly to the bottom as well as on the bottom, in total at four positions characters where the script-character is uncertain.
The find date, 22.05.1901, is given by Mancini (cp. LIR: 130). This information reminds of the find date of other finds from Sanzeno incorporated in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum: SZ-29 bowl, SZ-52 bowl, SZ-59 bowl, SZ-60 bowl, SZ-61 bowl as well as SZ-83 bowl. This indication is also given by Mancini (cp. LIR: 141 [SA-101] resp. LIR: 132 [SA-81], LIR: 110 [SA-49], LIR: 103 [SA-40], LIR: 106 [SA-43], LIR: 113 [SA-53] and LIR: 141 [SA-100]). Only Mancini indicates the 22th may of 1901 as find date. Related to the findspot Sanzeno it is well-known that a two-day excavation directed by Franz von Wieser took place in the spring of this year in Sanzeno (cp. Merhart 1926: 71–72). The objects found during this excavation were brought to the Tyrolean State Museum (cp. Merhart 1926: 72; moreover von Merhart states here that the major part of all the findings made in Sanzeno between 1898 and 1914 was acquired by von Wieser for the Tyrolean State Museum). Connecting both information, in all probability the object comes from the excavation directed by von Wieser. However, further find circumstances like exact find place are unknown. Concerning the other finds from Sanzeno the findspot Casalini is equally probable.
In accord with the typology the Sanzeno bowl can be dated to the 3rd–2nd centuries BC.
Probably first published by Mancini in the IR: 277–278 [No. 53]. In the recently released study about the Raetic inscriptions by Marchesini the Sanzeno bowl is listed with "MLR 208" among the inscriptions from Sanzeno; an autopsy was effected (cp. MLR: 197 [MLR 208]).
Autopsied by the Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum in November 2013.

S.K.

Bibliography

IR Alberto Mancini, "Iscrizioni retiche", Studi Etruschi 43 (1975), 249–306.
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)