VB·24 Stresa

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Object
Classification:	stela
Material:	stone
Size:	height 175 cm, width 52.5–57 cm, thickness 5–9 cm
Condition:	complete, broken
Autopsy by:	Corinna Salomon
Date of autopsy:	Apr 20 2024
Archaeological culture:	Augustan, Tiberian
Date:	late 1st c. BC–early 1st c. AD
Date derived from:	typology
Site:	Stresa (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piemonte, Italy)
Field name:	Brisino
Archaeological context:	medieval tomb (Objects: VB·22 Stresa, VB·23 Stresa, VB·24 Stresa, VB·25 Stresa)
Coordinates (approx.):	45° 52' 5.77" N, 8° 33' 33.42" E
Find date:	1975
Current location:	Museo Civico Antiquarium (Mergozzo)
Inventory no.:	none
Inscription:	VB·24 (exobna/diuconis/f)
Alternative sigla:	Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 15a Morandi 2004: 67
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 564 f. no. 67

Images

Stela VB·24 Stresa with inscription VB·24 from De Giuli 1979

Stela VB·24 Stresa with inscription VB·24

Commentary

Images in De Giuli 1978: 18 (photo = De Giuli 1979: 248, fig. 3 = Mainardis 2009: 337, fig. 5), Piana Agostinetti 2004: 201, fig. 10.63 (drawing).

Mica schist stela with rounded top, broken into two pieces and damaged on the lower end, found in secondary context together with VB·22 Stresa, VB·23 Stresa, VB·25 Stresa; see Brisino for the find circumstances and context. The shape of the Roman stelae at Brisino (also VB·25 Stresa) with the rounded top is similar to that of one of the epichoric stelae from Levo (VB·27 Stresa); De Giuli 1979: 251 mentions the possibility that the Brisino stones may come from the same site as the finds in Levo, though it seems quite possible that a pre-Roman/Roman necropolis existed in Brisino in the area of the Chiesa di Sant'Albino. Cf. Mainardis 2009: 337 f., who assumes the existence of a single workshop, pointing out that one stonemason/workshop would be able to produce stelae according to more traditional or modern tastes all dating to roughly the same time. Indeed, the gravestones from the Verbano cannot be marshalled into a clear chronological order, as factors like stone shape, frames, writing direction, letter forms and language/text formula appear in almost free combination. The present document is dated to the 1^st c. BC in AE 1982, no. 413, to the 1^st c. AD in the Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg (HD001987); a dating to the late 1^st c. BC or early 1^st c. AD seems most likely (cf. Cerrione and the gravestone from Bee (Lanza & Poletti Ecclesia 2021) dated to the early 1^st c. AD). See also Caramella & De Giuli 1993: 208, Piana Agostinetti 2004: 201.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

AE	Various authors, L'année épigraphique, Paris: 1888–.
Caramella & De Giuli 1993	Pierangelo Caramella, Alberto De Giuli, Archeologia dell'Alto Novarese, Mergozzo: Antiquarium Mergozzo 1993.
De Giuli 1978	Alberto De Giuli, "Le stele funerarie di Brisino", Bollettino Storico per la Provincia di Novara 69/1 (1978), 13–20.
De Giuli 1979	Alberto De Giuli, "Le stele funerarie di Brisino", Sibrium 14 (1978–1979), 245–252.