The inscribed loom weights from Monte Loffa, Monti Lessini(VR, ITALY): can we crack the code?

At the archaeological fortified site of Monte Loffa, in the Lessini Mountains north of Verona, a significant number of inscribed loom weights were discovered from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century in different and not always well documented excavations. The inscribed loom weights date to the Iron Age II (from the end of the 6th to the 1st century BC) and are exceptional both because they are made of stone and due to the unique typology of the inscriptions. As a matter of fact, the stele-shaped loom weights present a repertoire of inscribed signs, including numerals and icons that are often connected, combined and modified by small diacritics. The loom weights have been compared by the authors both with archaeological evidence of textile production and with all the known inscriptions recovered from an area comprising Trentino, Alto Adige and western Veneto. Although relevant to the Rhaetic writing system, no comparison for this particular type of loom weight has been found until now. Nevertheless, some other repertoires of signs connected to production activities, in the past and more recently, are the nearest candidates for a possible comparison. This paper identifies possible similarities between the unique inscriptions on these loom weights to other sign codes, with an analysis of ethnographic parallels of textile production across space and time.