TI·41 Stabio

edit with form

Object
Classification:	stela
Material:	stone
Size:	height 66 cm, breadth 43 cm, width 5 cm
Condition:	complete
Autopsy by:	Corinna Salomon
Date of autopsy:	Sep 28 2021
Archaeological culture:	La Tène D 1
Date:	late 2nd–early 1st c. BC
Date derived from:	typology
Site:	Stabio (Ticino, Switzerland)
Field name:	San Pietro di Stabio
Coordinates (approx.):	45° 51' 31.46" N, 8° 56' 5.83" E
Find date:	1857
Find circumstances:	by chance
Current location:	Rätisches Museum (Chur)
Inventory no.:	III.C186
Inscription:	TI·41 (alkouinos/aśkoneti)
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 274 Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 9 Solinas 1995: 21 Motta 2000: 10 Morandi 2004: 38
Sources:	Piana Agostinetti 2004: 178 f.

Images

Stela from Stabio with inscription TI·41 from Solinas

Stela from Stabio with inscription TI·41

Commentary

Images in Rhŷs 1913: pl. II (photo), Risch 1984: 27, Abb. 6 (drawing = Risch 1989: 1585, fig. 4) and 35, Abb. 16 (photo = De Marinis & Motta 1991: 209, fig. 5 = Risch 1992: 683, Abb. 4.1 = Solinas 1995: Tav. LXIII c), Piana Agostinetti 2004: 178, fig. 10.41 = 289, fig. 11.14.6 (drawing).

Roughly trapezoid stela of mica schist, probably complete on top, possibly incomplete on the left. The photo in Rhŷs is the only one showing the stela before it was set in concrete. The slab is very thin; the smoothed central vertical section on which the inscription is applied seems to have been carved quite far into the stone. The stela was found in 1857, at "S. Pietro, casale di Stabio [...] in occasione di lavori agricoli" (Lavizzari 1857 and apud Keller & Meyer 1865: 205), close to where the stela TI·42 Stabio was found a few years later. It is likely to come from a late La Tène necropolis which is so far only represented by two excavated graves (Simonett 1941: 25). It was sold to the Raetic Museum in 1874 (Pastore 2006: 47).

The stela is classified as type D (trapezoid, inscription in vertical lines without stylised antropomorphic frame) by De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206. It is dated to the late 2^nd/early 1^st century BC by Solinas 1995: 328, no. 21 and Motta 2000: 204, no. 10 following the dating of type D stelae in De Marinis & Motta 1991: 211. Piana Agostinetti 2004: 313 dates the stela to the 2^nd century BC (LT C2).

The stela is currently not on exhibition, but stored in the museum's depot.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

De Marinis & Motta 1991	Raffaele C. De Marinis, Filippo Motta, "Una nuova iscrizione lepontica su pietra da Mezzovico (Lugano)", Sibrium 21 (1990–1991), 201–225.