1,700-year-old mysterious Roman artifact found in countryside. No one knows its use.
A small community archaeology group stumbled across the "find of a lifetime" in the British countryside – a puzzling 1,700-year-old Roman artifact that has experts scratching their heads.
The artifact, known as a "Gallo Roman dodecahedron," is a 12-sided object around the size of a softball, weighing just over half a pound. Made of mostly copper with some tin and lead, it has a hole on each side and a small ball on each point.
The Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group made the astonishing discovery in June 2023 after years of excavating a plot of land near Lincolnshire in the East Midlands of England, around 150 miles from London.
"We were finding lots of Roman pottery from the second to the fourth century, but we also found some building materials as well," said Richard Parker, the group's secretary. "All of a sudden, a shout goes up. I go rushing over there, and someone is holding up this dodecahedron."
The miraculous discovery last summer makes the artifact one of just 33 Roman dodecahedra recovered in Great Britain, and of only around 130 worldwide.
It's also the only one of its kind found in the Midlands in central Great Britain. Uniquely intact, the artifact was deliberately laid in its resting place 1,700 years ago.
"Most of them are broken. They're in bits, or fragments," Parker said. "This one is most complete. It's in excellent condition."
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What was the dodecahedron used for?
Although the group was ecstatic to come across the rare find, its use and the reason behind its creation remain a millennia-long mystery.
"There are lots of very strange theories about their use on the internet, and it's probably best to disregard those," Parker said.
While the group believes the dodecahedron took painstaking time and effort to forge, archaeologists have little clue to its purpose.
It shows no signs of wear and tear, ruling out its possible use as a tool.
"We've had the metal tested, and it's got a very high lead content, which makes it very brittle," Parker explained. "You'd have to be very careful how you used it."
Its dimensions are also different from other recovered dodecahedra, meaning it wasn't used for standardized measurement.
The most likely theory is that it was a religious object, which lines up with its discovery near a possible religious Roman site.
"It's highly likely that it's some sort of ritual or religious device used in Roman religions," Parker said. "In our case, we have hints of religious sites very close by."
The artifact, Parker said, dates back to the third or fourth century as the Roman Empire began to adopt Christianity and push out Pagan religious traditions.
"The pagan gods have been outlawed in many cases," Parker said. "It's entirely possible that these sorts of changes may have affected the religion that might have used this."
Still, more investigation is needed, Parker stressed.
Although financial and time constraints forced the group to pause excavation of the ditch where the dodecahedron was found last year, it plans to return this year in the hopes of gleaning more information about the artifact's history.
"What we're hoping for this year is to go back to the same site and finish the excavation exactly where we found it," Parker said.
Meanwhile, the dodecahedron found a home earlier this month at the National Civil War Centre's Newark Museum in Nottinghamshire, where it is on display to curious visitors free of charge.
“It’s an absolutely stunning find, and it is amazing that even after all this time we are still unsure what it is or what it was used for," Glyn Hughes, collections and exhibitions manager at the Centre, said in a Newark and Sherwood District Council news bulletin.
"I am really looking forward to hearing what people think this could be.”
Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at cmayesosterman@usatoday.com. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.