My doctoral research focuses on the mysterious bronze artefacts known as Roman dodecahedra. The working title is “Harnessing Archaeological Science to Investigate Roman Dodecahedra”.
My project applies archaeological science to these relatively rare copper-alloy artefacts. What can empirical archaeological methods like laboratory tests and experimental reproduction reveal about Roman dodecahedra? What insights can the objects themselves reveal to us about their existence, grounded in objective data rather than speculation?
I am an international PGR student at Newcastle University. Because I am self-funded, by necessity, most of my artefact sampling has been in the UK; however, thanks to the BAA Travel Grant, I was able to travel to Germany to examine some continental dodecahedra from the Rhine region. At the time I applied for the grant, I was planning to see three artefacts. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to delay the original trip for several months, but when I did arrive in Germany, I was able to conduct research and collect data on seven different dodecahedra and one even rarer object: an ancient bronze icosahedron. I brought my own kit and performed the same laboratory investigations on each: weighing, measuring, photographing, and drawing them in my own schematic system. Thanks to colleagues at the LVR Landesmuseum, Bonn, I was also able to obtain portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis and two X-rays per object. This data is crucial to my analysis of the materials and methods used to create dodecahedra during the Roman era. Fine indicators of use wear and manufacture on the ancient objects cannot be detected from photos – only by close in-person examination and microscopy, and this was successfully done.
Furthermore, I was able to combine the trip with an invitation to stay at the Römisch-Germanische Kommission in Frankfurt, where I took advantage of the extensive archival resources in their 200-year-old library. I gathered vital information, obtainable in no other way, in three cities over three weeks. Adding these examples to my dataset will give it the extra diversity I need to better represent the types, sizes, condition, and find contexts of dodecahedra from the northwestern Roman provinces. With the BAA Travel Grant, I was able to execute this critical research. I am grateful.
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