TI·26 Vira Gambarogno

edit with form

Object
Classification:	stela
Material:	stone
Size:	lenght 105 cm, width 43 cm, thickness 5 cm
Condition:	incomplete
Autopsy by:	Corinna Salomon
Date of autopsy:	Oct 16 2023
Archaeological culture:	La Tène B, La Tène C
Date:	4th–mid-2nd c. BC
Date derived from:	typology
Site:	Vira Gambarogno (Ticino, Switzerland)
Coordinates (approx.):	46° 8' 26.70" N, 8° 50' 25.11" E
Find date:	1917
Find circumstances:	construction work
Current location:	Museo Castello di Montebello (Bellinzona)
Inventory no.:	252.1945.532
Inscription:	TI·26 (teromui:kualui)
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 267 Solinas 1995: 29 Motta 2000: 4 Morandi 2004: 25
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 533 no. 25

Images

Stela TI·26 Vira Gambarogno from Motta

Stela TI·26 Vira Gambarogno with inscription TI·26

Commentary

Images in Giussani 1919: 16, fig. 1 (photo), Motta 2000: 199, fig. 3 (photo = Stifter 2020: ?).

Irregular stela of beola gneiss, incomplete on top, found during the building of the road to Indemini in mid-March 1917, when a moraine was cleared near the locality Campaccio, at a depth of ca. 1.5 m (Giussani 1919: 15 f.). The stela is the only inscribed stone document from the Sopraceneri, but belongs typologically with the ones from the Sottoceneri (Lugano area) (Piana Agostinetti 2004: 145 f.); assuming that the stela did not significantly extend beyond the top of the inscription frame, it is a comparatively short specimen of the pala-stelae. See the inscription page on the typological/palaeographical dating.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Giussani 1919	Antonio Giussani, "L'iscrizione nord-etrusca di Vira-Gambarogno", Rivista archeologica della provincia e antica diocesi di Como 76–78 (1917–1918 [1919]), 15–21.