TI·42 Stabio

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Object
Classification:	stela
Material:	stone
Size:	max. height 153 cm, breadth 53 cm, width 12 cm
Condition:	complete
Autopsy by:	Corinna Salomon
Date of autopsy:	Sep 28 2021
Archaeological culture:	La Tène B, La Tène C
Date:	4th–mid-2nd 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:	1864
Find circumstances:	by chance
Current location:	Rätisches Museum (Chur)
Inventory no.:	III.C186b
Inscription:	TI·42 (minuku:komoneos)
Alternative sigla:	Whatmough 1933 (PID): 275 Tibiletti Bruno 1981: 7 Solinas 1995: 22 Motta 2000: 11 Morandi 2004: 39
Sources:	Piana Agostinetti 2004: 179–181

Images

Stela from Stabio with inscription TI·42 from Motta

Stela TI·42 Stabio with inscription TI·42 from Solinas

Stela from Stabio with inscription TI·42

TI·42 Stabio in comparison to Stefan Schumacher

Commentary

Images in Lavizzari 1864 (drawing = CII: iii, no. 2 = Pastore 2006: 46, fig. 4), Rhŷs 1913: pl. I (photo), Risch 1984: 34, Abb. 15 (photo = De Marinis & Motta 1991: 209, fig. 5 = Risch 1992: 681, Abb. 3.2 = Solinas 1995: tav. LX c = Morandi 2001: 6, fig. 1), Motta 2000: 205, fig. 9 (photo = Butti Ronchetti 2006: 56, fig. 4), Piana Agostinetti 2004: 179, fig. 10.42 = 289, fig. 11.16.5 (drawing).

Stela of mica schist found "300 passi da Stabio, nella direzione di Ligornetto", close to where the stela TI·41 Stabio had been found a few years prior, lying upside-down at no great depth. It is likely to come from a La Tène necropolis which is so far only represented by two excavated graves (Simonett 1941: 25). The stela is missing its top right corner, but is otherwise complete; the photo in Rhŷs is the only one showing it before it was set in concrete. It was sold to the Raetic Museum in 1874 (Pastore 2006: 47). The frame is 14–16.5 cm wide, representing a stylised human figure (97 cm high all in all) with feet, head and eyes, the latter speculated to be not original by Whatmough PID: 94, no. 275 (also Motta 2000: 205, no. 11).

The stela is classified as type C (rectangular, with the inscription in one line enclosed in a frame with clearly executed head, sometimes eyes and feet) by De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206, who date this type to the 4^th–mid-2^nd century BC (218) (cf. Solinas 1995: 328, no. 22, Piana Agostinetti 2004: 288–290). Motta 2000: 205, no. 11 dates the stela to the 3^rd–2^nd century BC. Tibiletti Bruno 1975b: 49 (also 1978: 140, 1981: 160 f., no. 7, 1997: 1010) considers the stylistic features of the inscription – the execution of the frame and letters – to be archaising, and dates the stela, like the other two from Stabio, to the late 2^nd–early 1^st century BC.

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

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Butti Ronchetti 2006	Fulvia Butti Ronchetti, "Stabio in età romana", in: Rossana Cardani Vergani, Sergio Pescia (eds), Stabio antica. Dal reperto alla storia. Testimonianze archeologiche scelte illustrano il suggestivo percorso di Stabio e delle terre del Sottoceneri dalle età più remote al Medioevo, Stabio: Armando Dadò 2006, 53–82.
CII	Ariodante Fabretti, Corpus inscriptionum italicarum antiquioris aevi. Ordine geographico digestum et glossarium italicum, in quo omnia vocabula continentur ex umbricis, sabinis, oscis, volscis, etruscis aliisque monumentis quae supersunt, Augusta Taurinorum: 1867.
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.