'Extraordinary' Roman box made of bone found

BBC ^ | January 7, 2026 | Elliot Ball

[SunkenCiv]

...The excavation at Milestone Ground in Broadway uncovered 8,000 years of human activity but it was the discovery of a carved bone box which really excited archaeologists.

The bone box was recovered from the grave of a young woman with archaeologists believing the find could offer new insight into the lives, beliefs and craftsmanship of the people who once occupied the north Cotswolds.

Jamie Wilkins, who led the excavation, described the find as extraordinary and that he had never seen anything like it before...

The artefacts found, which span prehistoric, Roman and Saxon times, took centre stage in an episode of BBC's Two's Digging for Britain.

[SunkenCiv]

An artefact believed to date back to the late Roman period has been unearthed in a Worcestershire

Wychavon District Council

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks for the link! I picked up a box quite similar to this one while shopping at Cotsco. Annnnnd, that's a rimshot.

[Magnum44]

[Magnum44]

[Red Badger]

We have a small bone box made in India.

What kind of bones?

I don’t want to know...................

[GingisK]

That is really very neat. Very clever.

Probably for safe keeping of their Worcestershire Sauce.

[old school]

This is an “Extraordinary” story with an “Extraordinary” lack of detail and an “Extraordinary” lack of relevance!

And, what did they do with the marrow?

[BenLurkin]

That’s for storing the game pieces that the players work around the outside like cribbage.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Fascinating! Archaeologists date the bone box to the late Roman period, which in Britain typically spans the 3rd to 5th centuries AD (roughly 1,500–1,800 years old).

Now how did the artisan make those perfect circle cuts? The uniformity suggests a drill press. Could people in the Roman period have made crude drill presses or vertical milling machines? (I doubt it).

Even if you had a machine like that, what cutter or bit would you use? Something like a hole saw? Or a fly cutter? A trepanning tool?

Note how the circular cuts were shaved off when the 45 degree bevel was added later. If the circular cuts were hand-carved, the artist would have probably repaired those circles and they wouldn't look cut off like that. I think that strongly supports the use of a machine to make the cuts.

[SunkenCiv]

An awl with a sort of outrigger blade. And he (or she) took his (or her) time.

[Red Badger]

Looks like an incense box...............

[brent13a]

.....I think that strongly supports the use of a machine to make the cuts.

Thats a wildly illogical deduction based on zero evidence.

You're saying that because it's 1800 years old that the people living in that era were too retarded to figure out how to draw near-perfect circles, nor cut them by hand. Okay.

[Slicksadick]

Looks like a box to hold dice. Ancient roman bone dice pips, have the same concentric circles.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pips+on+a+ancient+roman+dice&sca_esv=8246e02b3da205e5&udm=2&biw=1691&bih=769&sxsrf=AE3TifNxBTNhwHjsJiKuzLTaXPJxG99nQQ%3A1767807844161&ei=ZJteafrOCdfep84P3MylkAw&ved=0ahUKEwj6kNS0_fmRAxVX78kDHVxmCcIQ4dUDCBI&uact=5&oq=pips+on+a+ancient+roman+dice&gs_lp=Egtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZyIccGlwcyBvbiBhIGFuY2llbnQgcm9tYW4gZGljZUinJlD4BljoEnABeACQAQCYAWugAa0FqgEDNS4yuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIAoAIAmAMAiAYBkgcAoAe7ArIHALgHAMIHAMgHAIAIAA&sclient=gws-wiz-img

[pepsi_junkie]

Probably for safe keeping of their Worcestershire Sauce.

Possibly. We have a bottle of it in our fridge that I believe dates to the roman period, give or take.

[ComputerGuy]

Did it contain a pair of loaded dice?

[GingisK]

Most of those cuts could have been made with a plow plain or similar tool. Given the artifacts the Romans regularly produced, something similar to a drill press is not unreasonable. It could have even been made completely by hand by a careful craftsman.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

But small circles? Maybe they invented a compass-plane?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Cutting perfect concentric deep-groove circles by hand? Sure. Easy-peasy.

[GingisK]

Of course the Romans had drills and fly cutters. They made engineering marvels.

Once a centrally located drill has embedded into the work, a fly cutter or would be easy to control. Even with a bow saw. The Romans had sophisticated drilling machines.

[SunkenCiv]

Or, could have been a comb, or cosmetics, or both. Woman’s grave.