NO·27 Dormelletto

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Object
Classification:	stela
Material:	stone
Size:	height 1.05 m, breadth 45 cm, thickness 25 cm
Condition:	complete
Archaeological culture:	La Tène C
Date:	second half of 2nd century BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	Dormelletto (Novara, Piemonte, Italy)
Archaeological context:	structure 120 (Objects: NO·27 Dormelletto, NO·28 Dormelletto)
Coordinates (approx.):	45° 43' 48.34" N, 8° 34' 22.88" E
Find date:	2006
Find circumstances:	excavation
Finder:	Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte (Torino)
Current location:	Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte (Torino)
Inscription:	NO·27 (komeuiọṣ/kalatikn/os)
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Spagnolo Garzoli 2007: 254–256

Commentary

Images in Spagnolo Garzoli 2009: 41, fig. 25 (photo = Solinas 2022: 857, fig. 1a [in greyscale]), Gambari 2011: 27, fig. 12 (partial photo), Gambari 2011b: 65, fig. 7 (photo).

The stela was found face down among other slabs and stones in structure 120; it appears to have toppled over from where it stood on the structure's western side (see the reconstruction in Spagnolo Garzoli 2009: 43, fig. 29). (Cf. NO·28 Dormelletto, which was situated in a similar position on the north side.)

The stela is cut from iridescent muscovite mica schist, with an oblique upper edge, and appears to be complete. The upper half, separated from the lower one with a horizontal line, is decorated with a face framed by an arch above and two sets of concentric circles on either side. The lower half is taken up by the horizontal inscription in three lines. Below the inscription, another two horizontal lines. The stela and its decoration are compared not with Lepontic stelae, but with objects from Transalpine Gaul, specifically the La Tène stela from Eschenburg-Hirzenhain (Hessen) and Iron-age representations of human faces from the Rhône valley and the Provence by Spagnolo Garzoli 2007: 255, who interprets structure 120 as a cenotaph or heroon dedicated to ancestor worship (see also Spagnolo Garzoli 2009: 41–48). Gambari 2007: 257 also compares the "Christ"-petroglyph of the Vallée des Merveilles (Monte Bégo) (also Gambari 2011: 27). Gambari 2011: 27 f. assumes that structure 120 was a ritual deposit for boundary stones of the necropolis which became obsolete when the latter was enlarged.

The only associated find which may allow a dating of the stela within the timeframe imposed by that of the necropolis (3^rd–1^st century BC) is a fibula, the only non-stone object found in the filling material of structure 120, which is dated to the middle of the 2^nd century BC. This dating agrees with that of tomb 124, which precedes structure 120 stratigraphically; the stela is accordingly dated to the second half of the 2^nd century BC by Spagnolo Garzoli 2007: 255 (see also Gambari 2011: 27).

Corinna Salomon