NO·28 Dormelletto

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Object
Classification:	slab
Material:	stone
Size:
Condition:	damaged
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' 48.35" N, 8° 34' 22.84" 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·28 (akluśamo/ụalos/leukur/uritu)
Alternative sigla:	none
Sources:	Gambari 2007: 258 f.

Commentary

Image in Spagnolo Garzoli 2009: 42, fig. 27 (photo).

The slab was found among the other slabs and stones in the north-eastern corner of structure 120 (Spagnolo Garzoli 2007: 254; see the reconstruction in Spagnolo Garzoli 2009: 43, fig. 29). (Cf. NO·27 Dormelletto, which was situated in a similar position on the western side.)

The thick formless slab was broken already in antiquity, before being inscribed (Gambari 2007: 258). From the placement of the inscription, Gambari concludes that the slab was not stood up, but displayed lying flat on the ground; he does not exclude the possibility that the slab was reused as building material for structure 120. Spagnolo Garzoli 2007: 255 interprets structure 120 as a cenotaph or heroon dedicated to ancestor worship (see also Spagnolo Garzoli 2009: 41–48), while Gambari 2011: 27 f. assumes that it 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 slab 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 slab – unless it was reused – can accordingly be dated to the second half of the 2^nd century BC (cf. NO·27 Dormelletto).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Gambari 2007	Filippo M. Gambari, "Dormelletto. I documenti epigrafici in celtico cisalpino", Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica del Piemonte 22 (2007), 256–259.
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.