Stone monuments of ancient Italy (7th-4th cent. BC)

The stelae from the ancient middle Adriatic site of Novilara represent an important and almost unique documentation for a pre-Roman culture still undefined from the linguistic point of view. The project aims at establishing which kind of monument they represent, since their inscriptions, as well as their carved decorations, still wait for a proper explanation. Investigating such stone artefacts will require a mixture of traditional research and new technologies, focusing in particular on the study of working traces, on their record and comparison. The new achievements and the data base will eventually be published, along with an overall reconsideration for the question of the relationships among Adriatic pre-Roman cultures. To the aim, the following approaches will be carried out: 1. in-depth archive research in order to find evidence of the stelae at their retrieval age, between the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century; 2. direct study of the stelae through macrophotography and photogrammetry, in order to detect any possible tool trace and reconstruct the technology with which they have been worked; a faithful reproduction of the three most meaningful stelae through the ancient techniques and tools, aiming at comparing and verifying the traces left in the experimental work with the ones on the originals; 3. comparison with other inscribed stelae from south-Picene region and from the northern territory of Bologna (Felsinean stelae), to be conducted from the technological point of view, by means of macrophotography and photogrammetry. Both the reseach object and the methodologies proposed find an ideal location in the Institut für Archäologien of Innsbruck University, which is already active in excavating nearby the area of provenance of the stelae. Its interest in questions involving Adriatic archaeology is furthermore shown by the FWF Projekt Nr. P 26405-G21 Verucchio: city development and trade links, 11th-7th cent. BC, directed by Prof. Dr. A. Naso. In the same Department also work Prof. G. Tomedi and collaborators like Prof. M. Egg (RGZM), whose interests in the Adriatic environment are well known thanks to their copious literature on the subject.

Our research considered a group of stone funerary monuments from the area of Novilara. Novilara was a small but important pre-Roman settlement on the middle Adriatic coast, with an important role in the network of central European and Balkan civilizations. The authenticity of some carved monuments from Novilara has long been under discussion. The aim of this study was to verify the features of the monuments, and thus determine their origin and chronology. Study even extended to other stelae from elsewhere along the middle Adriatic coast. To achieve our goal, we have identified the models for Novilara stelae, reconstructed 19th-century linguistic and archaeological knowledge of ancient Italic populations, highlighted ancient sculptural techniques in Italy during the 7th through 4th centuries BC using macro photographs and 3D reconstruction of some working traces, and created experimental reproductions of the sculptures. Our work has confirmed that the majority of Novilara stelae and inscriptions are 19th-century creations. Our methodology can be applied to other objects of uncertain provenience.