SZ-9 bronze

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Object
Proper name:	Il cavalluccio
Classification:	bronze
Material:	bronze
Size:	length: 9.3 cm, width: 7.1 cm, height: 1 cm
Condition:	complete, restored
Date:	4th–3rd centuries BC
Date derived from:	typology
Site:	Sanzeno (Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Field name:	Casalini
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 21' 57.60" N, 11° 4' 30.00" E [from site]
Find date:	1947–1949
Find circumstances:	by chance
Current location:	Castello del Buonconsiglio (on exhibition)
Inventory Nr.:	7667
Inscriptions:	SZ-9.1 (kuninasi/θauχrilina) SZ-9.2 (?)
Sources:	Roberti 1950: 182, pl. III Dal Rì 1987: 174–175 (No. 722), fig. 301

Images

Object SZ-9 bronze with inscriptions SZ-9.1 and SZ-9.2 - front side.

Object SZ-9 bronze - rear side.

Object SZ-9 bronze - detail with vitreous enamel.

Commentary

Bronze in the shape of a horse.
Roberti states the proper name Il cavalluccio; Pellegrini indicates the name given by Roberti as well as Pferdchen C (cp. Pellegrini 1951: 312). The latter in according to Mayr (cp. Mayr 1951: 78).
Turned to left, on a small pedestal. The feet of the horse united and the mouth linked with the body by a bronze fillet, probably to imitate the bridle rein. The trail and the mane decorated with fine incisions. The ear and the genital highly modelled.
An inscription sidewise the body, on the feet and on the pedestal.
Dal Rì dates the bronze to the 4th–3rd centuries BC, but remarks it as arguable (Dal Rì 1987: 174).
Dal Rí indicates the years 1949 and 1950 as finding years. According to Roberti almost the whole group of the bronzes was found during pouring sand over the period of 1947, autumn 1948 and spring 1949 (cp. Roberti 1950: 173).
Further references with detailed information about the inscription: Mayr 1951: 78–79 (No. IX), fig. IX; Pellegrini 1951: 312–314 (No. 9), fig. 9; Vetter 1954: 71.
To compare by autopsy: Roberti as well as Dal Rì mention remains of paint red in colour in the area of the hole and the eye.

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.
Mayr 1951	Karl M. Mayr, "Die Inschriften der Votive von Sanzeno (2)", Der Schlern 25 (1951), 30–32, 78–79, 133–135, 179–181.