Javier Albisu |
Brussels (EFE).- From time to time, in a forgotten wasteland, in the trunk of an antique dealer or in a site excavated in the domains of ancient Rome, the mystery of the Roman dodecahedrons reappears, some strange ancient bronze objects whose function it is unknown.
The Roman dodecahedron is a geometric figure with twelve pentagonal faces pierced with non-identical circles and topped at the vertices with small protruding balls. They date from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. C, are hollow and about the size of a tennis ball, although specimens vary in make and dimensions.
The first was found in 1739 in Aston, England, and since then about 120 have been discovered in Europe, plus any that may be in private collections or still buried.
The last one has appeared in the Belgian town of Kortessem. An amateur archaeologist named Patrick Schuermans, exploring a farm field with a metal detector, came across a 6-centimeter metal fragment that turned out to be a dodecahedron, and handed it over to the Flemish Heritage Agency.
“Many hypotheses have been formulated about the function of these strange objects, but there is no conclusive explanation,” summarizes that institution about some pieces that are not mentioned in historical texts.
witchcraft and clairvoyance
The list of possible uses attributed to them is wide and varied: a weapon, a tool for planning planting, a candlestick, a device for knitting gloves, a toy, an amulet, a dice, a weight for fishing nets, etc. a musical instrument, a banner bearer, a device for calculating distances on the battlefield, a joint, a tool for calibrating pipes…
But Belgian archaeologists who have studied the 1,600-year-old object suspect that they were used in magical rituals related to witchcraft or divination.
«It is quite possible (…). For now we do not have a satisfactory proposition for practical use, although there are many hypotheses. A use as a magical object or some kind of ‘defixio’ (curse tablet) is still possible,” explains Guido Creemers, curator of the Gallo-Roman Museum of Tongeren, to EFE.
The lack of written references would respond to the fact that clairvoyance and witchcraft were very popular among the Celts and Romans but “they were not officially allowed and there were severe punishments.”
«We know of a category of metal plates with magical inscriptions (…) that were placed, for example, in houses in a place where they were not visible. They were made by magicians and their destiny was to curse the owner of the house. It could be that dodecahedrons served a comparable purpose, for example fortune telling,” he adds.
Another clue is the discovery in Geneva in 1982 during the restoration works of the Cathedral of Saint Peter of a solid dodecahedron, and not hollow, with the signs of the zodiac engraved in Latin, he points out.
“If I am forced to give an explanation, I should look for it in this direction,” adds the archaeologist.
Only in Celtic lands
The new Belgian dodecahedron also reinforces the widespread theory that they were linked to Celtic cultures and not to the practices of the Italian peninsula, so they would not be Gallo-Roman.
They have appeared in Italy or Hungary, but above all in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain. That is to say, in what were Gaul, Germania and Britannia, Celtic territories invaded by Julio Cesar between 58 and 51 BC. C., and largely administered by Rome until the fifth century.
“It is remarkable that dodecahedrons are not present at all in the area around the Mediterranean Sea” such as Hispania or North Africa, but in “an area matching that of Celtic civilization,” notes the Flemish Heritage Agency.
The city which the Romans called Atuatuca Tungrorum (Tongeren in Flemish or Tongres in French) was home to the Germano-Celtic tribes of the Eburons, commanded by Catuvolcus and Ambiorix and defeated by the Roman troops of Julius Caesar.
In the 19th century, in the heat of the romantic-nationalist currents, Ambiorix became one of the national heroes of an incipient Belgian State in need of national symbols and today it has consecrated squares, statues and streets throughout the country.
The geographical location of the dodecahedrons is also consistent with the fact that they were made with the complicated sculptural technique of wax casting and the Celts were great metallurgical masters.
The new fragment will be exhibited from March at the Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren, which has a complete specimen found in 1939. A third found in Belgium, in 1888 in the municipality of Bassenge, is on display at the Grand Curtius museum in Liège.
