Icosahedral (20-sided) quartz crystal die, Roman 1st-3rd centuries AD, collection of The Musée du Louvre.
The Louvre account tells us that it is 1cm high, rock crystal – “en cristal de roche” – and Roman empire period.
Each face has a Latin letter on it, and also the corresponding Roman numeral. The ten lateral faces bear the letters A to K, and the numerals 1 to 10. The upper five triangles bear the letters L to P and the numbers 11 to 15. The lower five triangles bear the letters Q to V, and the numbers 16-20.
This item is by no means unique. A considerable number of polyhedral dice have been recovered from all over the Roman empire. The majority are inscribed with Greek or Latin numbers or letters.
One unique example was an icosahedron – 20 sided dice – found in Egypt, which had the name of a different Egyptian god on each side.
What were these things used for? Obviously they were intended to be thrown, and to give a random result. But what then?
One often-heard explanation is that they were used in conjunction with divination handbooks. There is a 2nd/3rd century Greek oracle book, the Homeromanteion, preserved in three papyri, which refers to throwing lots to obtain a number, which can be used to look up ready-prepared oracle questions and answers.
