RARE ANCIENT ROMAN BRONZE GAMING PIECE - ASTRAGALUS 50 - 400 AD
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:30208867 | Provenance: Ownership History Available |
| Type: dice | Colour: Bronze |
| Material: Bronze |
RARE ANCIENT ROMAN BRONZE GAMING PIECE - ASTRAGALUS
Eastern european find in the early 1980s
In ancient Greece, the word astragalus referred to the vertebrae and ankle bones (carpels and tarsals) usually from sheep. These bones, or astragaloi, were used as gaming pieces and are considered to be the precursors of dice.The term astragalus is used by historians and archaeologists to refer to games of chance played with the animal bones.The astragaloi, called... by Romans taxilli (singular: taxillus) were used for both gambling and decision-making. Although it has not been proven, these early forms of dice are thought to have been used in the “casting of lots, ” or setting a course of action dependent on random chance. The most familiar instance is the Biblical story of the Roman soldiers casting lots for the robe of Christ at his crucifixion.Tossing marked bones was a practice used not only by the ancient Greeks and Romans, but apparently dates back to our earliest ancestors. In The Origins of Randomness, Diane Mathios (2002) states, “Dice and astragali were also used in divination and soothsaying to make the wishes of the deity known."
CIRCA I-IV CENTURY AD
Eastern european find in the early 1980s
In ancient Greece, the word astragalus referred to the vertebrae and ankle bones (carpels and tarsals) usually from sheep. These bones, or astragaloi, were used as gaming pieces and are considered to be the precursors of dice.The term astragalus is used by historians and archaeologists to refer to games of chance played with the animal bones.The astragaloi, called... by Romans taxilli (singular: taxillus) were used for both gambling and decision-making. Although it has not been proven, these early forms of dice are thought to have been used in the “casting of lots, ” or setting a course of action dependent on random chance. The most familiar instance is the Biblical story of the Roman soldiers casting lots for the robe of Christ at his crucifixion.Tossing marked bones was a practice used not only by the ancient Greeks and Romans, but apparently dates back to our earliest ancestors. In The Origins of Randomness, Diane Mathios (2002) states, “Dice and astragali were also used in divination and soothsaying to make the wishes of the deity known."
CIRCA I-IV CENTURY AD
