Dear Carine,
Perhaps owing to their peculiar shape ruminant astragali have been almost
universally popular for a variety of ("symbolic") purposes. In addition to
Umberto's data, in Hugary we have 17th c. Ottoman Period gaming pieces
weighed with lead, just to name the possibly most relevant pieces. But either
modified or in mass deposits (>20), they occur almost in all major
archaeological periods from the Iron Age Hallstatt culture onwards.
Copies have also been popular. There is an attache case sized bronze
specimen in the Louvre (owned by Dareios of Persia, if I recall well). The
British Museum has a Greek vase in the shape of an astragalus etc. I own
modern plastic (France), brass (Mongolia) and lead (Flanders) astragali used
as dice and good luck pieces respecitvely. Sebastiao Salgado has a photo in
which a small boy is playing with a mixed bunch of plasic cows and cowboys
and sheep astragali on a porch somewhere in Latin America.
Once you are aware, you see them almost everywhere!
Best wishes, Laszlo Bartosiewicz
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