NO·29 Castelletto sopra Ticino

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Object
Classification:	slab
Material:	stone
Size:	length 51 cm, height 42 cm, thickness 30 cm
Condition:	unknown
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca I C, Golasecca II A
Date:	7th–mid-6th century BC
Date derived from:	archaeological context
Site:	Castelletto sopra Ticino (Novara, Piemonte, Italy)
Field name:	Belvedere
Coordinates (approx.):	45° 43' 2.57" N, 8° 38' 31.98" E
Find date:	1991
Find circumstances:	excavation
Current location:	Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte (Torino)
Inventory no.:	91570
Inscription:	NO·29 (χọθiọṣ)
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Gambari 2011: 19

Commentary

Image in Gambari 2011: 20, fig. 3 (photo = Gambari 2018: 37, fig. 4 [in colour; referred to as fig. 2 in the text p. 34 – the correct caption is indeed that of fig. 2]).

Found in 1991 during excavations in the central area of the Belvedere settlement. The upper part appears to have been damaged by the digging tool. The base rested on the findless layer beneath the settlement; the layer which covered the lower half is dated to Golasecca I C–II A, i.e. the 7^th–mid-6^th century BC (Gambari 2011: 19). See the inscription page on Gambari's palaeographical dating.

The stone is a formless boulder of orthogneiss; the area in which the letters are written may have been flattened and smoothed.

According to Wikipedia, the boulder is displayed at the Biblioteca civica in Castelletto sopra Ticino.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Gambari 2011	Filippo Maria Gambari, "Le pietre dei signori del fiume: il cippo iscritto e le stele del primo periodo della cultura di Golasecca", in: Filippo Maria Gambari, Raffaella Cerri (eds), L'alba della città. Le prime necropoli del centro protourbano di Castelletto Ticino, Novara: 2011, 19–32.
Gambari 2018	Filippo M. Gambari, "Un alfabeto antico per lingue nuove. Le prime attestazioni delle lingue celtiche nelle epigrafi preromane della lombardia occidentale", in: Cristina Miedico (ed.), Le voci degli altri. Linguaggi, parole e alfabeti inconsueti nella Lombardia antica, Angera: 2018, 31–41.