Hi, I have found a worked bone object from a Late Iron Age site near Gloucester that, according to McGregor in his book on worked bone, antler and ivory is a dice. It is a small oblong shaped object, with each of the four long sides having numbers etched into them (numbers 3 - 6). Whilst according to the book it seems to obviously be a dice, it is about half the size of the ones he mentions, and appears to be made from the solid shaft of a large long bone, with a hole drilled through it rather than a larger sheep sized long bone such as a metapodial which would naturally have a hole through the middle. It is also very nicely polished. Basically, what we are wondering is if this object was originally made as a very small dice, or if it could have been a bead decorated like a dice. I was wondering if anyone had found anything similar to this, and what their thoughts were on the object.
Thanks
Emma-Jayne
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emma-Jayne Evans, Oxford Archaeology
[log in to unmask]
|