Novilara Stele

The Novilara Stele (TM 171821 ) is a stele from a village in Marche in Italy, perhaps from the mid 7th century BC. Acquired around 1889, it is the only completely preserved of four texts written in an unknown language called North Picene, written in the Italic alphabet. As ships are depicted on the back, the monument is thought to display the wealth of a local sailor. Up until recently, most scholars were convinced that it is genuine, but in a forthcoming publication (V. Belfiore, Novilara stelae. A stylistic, epigraphical and technological study in a middle Adriatic epigraphical and sculptural context, Rudolf Habelt Verlag), the gang that forged the inscriptions will apparently be unmasked!