Let's read the stele from the top to the bottom.
The central part is occupied by the Greek merchant ship. It has a square sail and 15 rowers. Two other men are handling the sail. 4 rows are showed.
It has a central hinged rudder, a sort of small rostrum and an animal figure at the bow. There're 5 fish under the keel.
There're 2 couples of men in the left. Each man is connected to his partner by a line which links their legs. Another couple of men is on the left. Under this couple there's what seems to be an animal. 3 other animals are at the top left.
Under them is a strange sign which has been interpreted as a fantastic animal, a dragon perhaps. It can also be a ship's decoration. Or the rapresentation of the wind which pushes the ship away from the battle shown below.
Under this strange representation we find 3 other men, of which 2 are connected as the other couples above. The fact that they're connected means they're slaves.
Under them is a rectangle with zig-zag lines, interpreted as a plowed field.
Both this and the slaves have been interpreted as the ship's cargo, which consists of slaves and agricultural products. Both were typical products of my Region at that time, according to some ancient sources (mainly Silio Italico, and other Greek and Latin Authors).
And here we come to the lower part: the battle.
2 ships are shown, each one smaller than the Greek one.
They're equal in everything: same hinged rudder, 4 rows, same rostrum and animal figure in the bow.
The left one is equipped with 3 warriors, the right one with 4.
All the warriors are equipped in the same way, except for a fifth warrior which is fading in the far right (we can assume he's part of the right ship's crew).
They all have conical helmets (this stele is one of the sources for my linen hat, see
http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1358701012), a round shield (the fifth warrior has it shield decorated, or perhaps the signs on it mean it was made of wicker, according to other contemporary sources found in Sardinia), and that long weapon.
Some archaeologists here said these weapons are spears, other said they're a sort of weapon used to ignite the opponent boat.
I think they're slings, because of the reasons I'm explaining below.
First of all, every weapon goes straight for a bit, and then turns, with various angles, suggesting different moments of rotation if they're slings.
Then there're 2 or perhaps 3 spots near two of these weapon's end (from left to right, I'm talking of warriors 7 and 8). These spots may be due to the stele's deterioration, or may be efforts to represents two sling bullets.
In the end, the right boat is losing the fight. 4 dead men are showed under the keel, and it has lost its rudder.
The loss of the rudder can't be due to a javelin, which would remain stuck in the wood at worst. While repeated impacts may have caused it to detach, especially if it was hinged using cords instead of iron nails.
Under the left boat's keel we find 6 fish.
The fact that the two ships and their crew are represented equal strengthens the hypothesis that these are 2 Picenian war ships, a pirate one (right) and a mercenary one (left) which's saving the merchant one.
This would fit with the sources describing the Picenians as mercenaries and pirates (among other things) and with the fact that this celebrative stele was given to Novilara's Picenians by the Greek shipowner (or was made by the Picenians themselves to celebrate their victory).
I'll post sources as soon as I'll gather them.
Greetings,
Mauro.