NO·27 Dormelletto

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Object
Classification:	stela
Material:	stone
Size:	height 1.1 m, breadth 45 cm, thickness 25 cm110 cm <br />
Condition:	complete
Autopsy by:	Corinna Salomon
Date of autopsy:	Apr 24 2024
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:	Musei Reali – Museo di Antichità (Torino)
Inventory no.:	none
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 is separated from the presumably buried lower one by two horizontal lines, above which the inscription is written in three lines. The top section of the stela, separated from the inscription by one horizontal line, is decorated with a face framed by an arch above and two sets of concentric circles on either side (height of image area 33 cm). 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

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.
Gambari 2011b	Filippo Maria Gambari, "Per una lettura "protostorica" della bilingue di Vercelli", in: Gisella Cantino Wataghin (ed.), Finem dare. Il confine, tra sacro, profano e immaginario. A margine della stele bilingue del Museo Leone di Vercelli. Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Vercelli, cripta di S. Andrea, 22–24 maggio 2008, Vercelli: Edizioni Mercurio 2011, 47–65.