Roman-era box found at young girl’s gravesite

[guy]

 

A small Roman-era box has been discovered at the gravesite of a young girl. The intact box features a sliding door.

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The decoration is called ring and dot suggested a late Roman date, and radiocarbon dating of the burial has since confirmed this. The box measures at 68mm long, 33mm wide and 30mm deep. Specialist analysis has also revealed that the box was made from the bone of a roe deer and may originally have held an ointment or similar substance.  Its careful placement in the grave tells us it was likely a valued or meaningful object, to the woman it was buried with and/or to those who laid her to rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.explorethepast.co.uk/2026/01/thebroadwaybox/

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74vm30wrlyo

Edited January 9 by guy

[guidoLaMoto]

Obviously the box contained a mail ordered object from Target. The Romans didn't know what to do with all the boxes from on-line shopping either, so they just tossed it into any hole in the ground.

I'm impressed with the precision with which the circles are so consistently reproduced. The artisan must have had a tool like a hole saw rather than chiseling or etching each circle out individually....Has any such instrument ever been found dating to that era?

Edit: I just noticed the circles at the upper left corner of the small side facing us-- the design over laps the joint line, ergo, must have been added after assembly of the box...Odd.....A rotating saw would surely have disrupted the joint, so maybe the design features were burned into faces with a branding iron type tool?

Edited January 11 by guidoLaMoto

[Crispina]

Also shadows of a circle design on the inside? I too am impressed with workmanship.