Imagine finding among the rubble of a Roman villa the remains of an ancient cryptic artifact that is what happened to the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group. This group of amateur archaeologists has just discovered a mysterious 12-sided object near an ancient Roman site in England. Experts have been puzzled for hundreds of years at the purpose of the artifact they uncovered and what is known as a Roman dodecahedron.
A matter of interest: The Roman villa site that the excavation yielded, some 100 miles north of London, has given up all manner of interesting finds over the years, from tiled mosaic floors to animal bones, but nothing quite like what volunteers ended up holding on a warm July day last summer. One of the volunteers was Richard Watts. He found himself holding a small metal object about the size of a softball, its 12 faces having holes on each of them and covered in small knobs.
“We realized quite quickly that we’d found something really quite significant,” said Richard Parker, secretary to the group. Instantly, the members of the group knew it was a Roman dodecahedron. Though most had seen it only in pictures on the internet, says Parker, all other work stopped there and then as everybody got to Googling for more information about their find.
But what really churns curiosity about this object is the fact that no one actually knows what it was used for. Also, approximately 130 of these dodecahedrons have been found, turning up in areas that were once the northwest provinces of the Roman Empire, particularly in countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, and Great Britain. They are noticeably absent in other Roman territories, like Italy, Spain, and Africa, which adds another level of mystery to them.
“The fact that many of them were found before scientific excavation started in the 20th century does hinder our understanding of them,” says Frances McIntosh, an archaeologist with English Heritage. In many instances, very little detail was kept of earlier finds, which can make it very difficult to piece together their original purpose.
The dodecahedrons are made of a high percentage of copper alloy, yet they vary greatly in size, making it unlikely that they were measuring instruments. Besides, they are extremely fragile; hence, they could not be used in heavy applications. Some other interpretations are the religious significance and application in rituals. The true function still remains a mystery.
They have been found in all sorts of places, McIntosh said, listing military camps, temples, public baths, theaters and tombs among the varied locations. The find of the Norton Disney group was the first ever dodecahedron uncovered in England’s Midlands region so that it was a groundbreaker.
But adding mystery to the items is the professional level of the crafting. Parker said their dodecahedron was made of 75% copper, 18% lead, and 7% tin: “The composition is fairly unusual. Having such a high lead content, it would’ve required a lot of skill to pour this particular alloy into the mold because it would’ve been very sticky.”
The complexity of the artifact therefore reveals that it was not a cheap, mass-produced product. This was further evidenced by the fact that the dodecahedron was cast in a lost-wax bronze process—an extremely technical feat made even more challenging by the hollow nature of the final product.
Somewhat predictably, Internet sleuths and amateur historians have weighed in with speculation about their use as knitting tools or even dog treat dispensers, but also these ideas are generally shot down by academic archaeologists. “You need consistency to be able to use anything as a gauge,” said Lorena Hitchens, another expert who examined the relic. “They don’t have the kind of use wear you’d expect from a tool.” The most popular theory among experts is that they had religious or ritual significance, probably tied to local practices in the Roman Empire’s fringes.
Another find, a tiny Roman figure featuring a god of mounted riders and “very strong religious connotations,” emerged not far from the same area, hence the surmise of its ritual use. Weather permitting, the Norton Disney group hopes to revisit the digging site next year to find more artifacts and, perhaps, gain more insight into the importance of the dodecahedron.
As Parker summarized cogently, “It’s a pretty complicated story to tell and we’re just getting started in trying to tease out bits of it.” Whilst the true intended purpose of these enigmatic items is still very much open for debate amongst historians as well as the wider reading public, the discovery itself remains one of high interest. The dodecahedron is now mounted as an exhibit at the Lincoln Museum, and perhaps some visitors reading the exhibit will be the one to finally solve the case of the Roman dodecahedron.
