Tongeren is getting a new piece of dodecahedron
Author: Harry Lindelauf
Photography: Kris Vandevorst
Tongeren is getting a new piece of dodecahedron
The Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren will soon expand its collection with a fragment of a mysterious Roman object. It concerns a piece only two centimetres in size — a piece of a dodecahedron.
Amateur archaeologist Patrick Schuermans from Alken found the bronze fragment with a metal detector in 2021 in Kortessem, between Hasselt and Tongeren. He reported his find to the Belgian agency for Immovable Heritage, which examined the fragment of the dodecahedron.
North of the Alps, a total of about 120 dodecahedrons have been found — two in Belgium, two in the Netherlands. One of the complete Belgian examples can be seen in the Gallo-Roman Museum and will now be joined by a fragment.
In the Netherlands, an intact dodecahedron was found in Elst. Between Maastricht and Rothem, fragments were also discovered close to the Via Belgica.
Despite extensive research, it has still not been demonstrated what the twelve-sided dodecahedrons were used for. The dodecahedrons are between 4.5 and 8.5 centimetres in size and cast in bronze. Remarkable, too, are the little feet with a tiny ball on each corner.
