Dice from Badia Pozzeveri

3D Model

A bone dice, with length of just 0.6 mm, was found in along with a loom weight and a fragment of glazed jug (imported from Islamic Spain?) inside a 12th century pit. The holes on the faces of the dice were made with a drill with concentric holes. The sum of the opposing faces always results in 7, a feature that seems to be common in dice starting from the twelfth century. The game of dice was strictly prohibited by the Church during the Middle Ages, however it was in fact probably quite disregarded even among the clergy. In Tuscany there are several findings of “archaeological” dice, usually from the low medieval period, found in military contexts such as castles or fortresses. The discovery of such objects in a monastic context is rarer. In the excavation of the Monastery of San Michele alla Verruca on Monte Pisano some dice were found, but all attributed to the military use of the site during the war between Pisa and Florence, at the beginning of the fifteenth century.