Here you can see more from Franco's art. They are two writing styluses and a writing tablet found in the goddess Reitia's sanctuary in Deserto Street, dating 4th-3rd centuries BC, one of the five Venetic sanctuaries found in Este. Este on the lower province of Padova was one of the main centres of the Venetkens. These square-section bronze styluses have a pointed end to write with, and a flat end to smooth the waxed surface of the writing tablets. The measures of the largest styluses (about 13-26 cm) suggest they are not models manufactured and used as ex votum, but rather are styluses effectively used to write. A large number of styluses have alphabetic signs on the sides; a few styluses also have a votive inscription. The writing tablets are rectangular bronze tablets (about 20 x 15/16 cm), sometimes with a handle at one end; these votive objects are reproductions of the writing tablets used for teaching and learning writing, which were probably made of perishable materials, for example, wood. The tablets found in the deposits of Reitia carry a votive inscription demonstrating the sanctuary was a writing center and shows the role played by writing in the practices of the cult. The alphabet is an adaptation to the Venetic language of a northern Etruscan alphabet (in turn taken from the Greeks, and invented by the Phoenicians). Votive inscriptions are found only in the ex votum tablets. The structure of the inscriptions is in the form of a ‘speaking object’; I am donated by So and So. The styluses and the tablets were found only in women's graves, so it looks that writing was taught only by priestesses in the sanctuaries. To see a list of Venetic symbols of the alphabet here: http://lila.sns.it/mnamon/index.php?page=Simboli&id=31&cont=293&lang=en&PHPSESSID=fpxoeogttmuhz Thanks for your kind comments.