Ballinderry Cube
The Ballinderry Cube is an archaeological find discovered in 1933 during excavations at Crannóg Ballinderry No. 2, County Offaly , Ireland . It is an elongated cube made of bones that has an Ogham symbol instead of dots on one of its four sides with numerical values . It is dated to the 8th to 10th centuries AD.
description
The Ballinderry Cube is made from an elongated bone. Because of its elongated shape, the cube cannot remain on the small ends when thrown, only four sides are labeled with numerical values. Because of the elongated shape of the cube, the values for the numbers 1 and 2 are omitted. The numerical values for 3, 4 and 6 are represented by the corresponding number of points. The numbers 4 and 6 are on the wider sides of the bone and are therefore easier to roll.
Instead of the usual five points for the number 5 on dice at this time, the Ogham symbol ᚃ is used, which is transmitted with the sound value V. The Roman numeral uses the form V for the number 5. This shows that the manufacturer of the cube at the time was familiar with both the Ogham script and the Roman numerals. "In any case, it suggests that people in general were so familiar with the Ogham script that it was even used on an object as fleeting as a cube."
use
This type of dice (including finds without the Ogham mark) was likely used for games in which four dice were thrown together in the air and then fell onto a blanket or cloth.
Specialty
The Ballinderry cube is one of the only eleven small finds mentioned in the Ogham specialist literature to this day, i.e. finds in which the Ogham characters are not carved into stone slabs and stone pillars (around 400 finds) but into small objects (mainly everyday objects) . Six of these, including the Ballinderry Cube, were discovered in Ireland, namely the Ballyspellan fibula , the Dublin Castle comb , the Ennis pearl , the Kilgulbin hanging bowl and the Tullycommon bone .
literature
- Clarke, DV: Bone Dice and the Scottisch Iron Age, in: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 36 (1970), pp. 214-232
- Hencken, H. (Hugh) O'Neill : Ballinderry Crannog No. 2, in: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Archeology, Culture, History, Literature 47 (1941/1942), pp. 1 - 76
- Raftery, Barry: A Late Ogham Inscription from Co. Tipperary, in: JRSAI (Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland) 99/2 (1969), pp. 161-164. JSTOR 25509718
References and comments
- ↑ Hencken, p. 5 and P. 55
- ↑ a b c Hencken, p. 55
- ^ Raftery, p. 161
- ^ Clarke, p. 226
- ↑ Mentions and descriptions e.g. B. by Donal B. Buchanan , Katherine Stuart Forsyth , Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister , Barry Raftery