And tonight's mystery object is ...
Jan. 27th, 2024 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe have been working steadily through the latest series of Digging for Britain, and have at last been introduced to the object on which the vamera lingers so lovingly in the opening title sequence: a three-dimensional geometrical shape, hollow, metal, pierced and decorated with knobs which seem to glow turquoise under the lights. I had no idea what it was, what it is for, or even how big it is...
It turns out to be the star find of the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group in Lincolnshire, and it is a Roman (or Gallo-Roman or Romano-Celtic) dodecahedron. What is it for? Nobody knows.
Digging for Britain went on at great length about how incredibly rare these are, which made me feel better about not having known what it was. But by "incredibly rare" they mean that this brings the total found in Britain to 33; there are about 120 throughout the northern corner of the Roman Empire (Atlas Obscure has a map). Not to disparage this find, which is a lovely thing, and does appear to be in beautiful condition: finding it would make anyone's year. But there are several along the Roman Wall (there's one at Corbridge).
The Smithsonian magazine article is headlined: Another Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron Has Been Unearthed in England, as if their readers would know all about the things. You can even buy replicas (try Etsy). So yes, maybe I should have known this all along. Anyway, I'm glad to hace learned about it now.
It turns out to be the star find of the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group in Lincolnshire, and it is a Roman (or Gallo-Roman or Romano-Celtic) dodecahedron. What is it for? Nobody knows.
Digging for Britain went on at great length about how incredibly rare these are, which made me feel better about not having known what it was. But by "incredibly rare" they mean that this brings the total found in Britain to 33; there are about 120 throughout the northern corner of the Roman Empire (Atlas Obscure has a map). Not to disparage this find, which is a lovely thing, and does appear to be in beautiful condition: finding it would make anyone's year. But there are several along the Roman Wall (there's one at Corbridge).
The Smithsonian magazine article is headlined: Another Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron Has Been Unearthed in England, as if their readers would know all about the things. You can even buy replicas (try Etsy). So yes, maybe I should have known this all along. Anyway, I'm glad to hace learned about it now.
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Date: 2024-01-29 12:25 pm (UTC)My inner pedant points out that although these things were found over a wide area of the Roman empire, there are also large areas they didn't reach, including Rome itself and the wholer of Italy. The fashion seems to have been restricted to Gallo-Roman areas (whatever that may mean ..)