Engraved bone counters / tokens / calculi
3 €
These objects were very common throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
They were used for games, for accounting and for any other activity requiring counters.
“Calculi” is the Roman name: it is the literal Latin for “pebbles”.
It gave French both arithmetical “calcul” (calculation) and renal “calcul” (kidney stone).
The models shown here are in bone.
Diameter 20 mm, thickness 5 to 8 mm
- Materials
- Marbre
- Periods
- Antiquity, Merovingians and Carolingians, Middle Ages, French Revolution, Vikings, 12th-13th centuries (Crusades), Hundred Years' War and 15th century, Renaissance, 17th century, 18th century, Modern era