Mária T. Biró: The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. (Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici. Seria Archeologica 2; Budapest, 1994)

VII. THE SPREAD OF USING WRITTEN RECORDS — WRITING AND COUNTING IMPLEMENTS MADE OF BONE - 2. Styli - 3. Counting discs (calculi)

is irregular and on their edge in several cases tiny scratches are discernible.

109 Such bone discs were found by me in the layer of the earliest Roman settlement at Tác; near to one of the two discs there were several turned bone discs decorated with central circles. Here, too, the edge of the bone discs was indented picot-edge like. These turned discs, generally considered as counters, can be found at any Roman settlement, however, in fewer number than the disc without indentation or concentric circles determined also by me as marbles of games. In Egger's opinion it is imaginable that the discs of irregular shape unearthed by him were counting discs. Magdalensberg was an early trading settlement and depository where possibly larger lots of goods were exchanged. Their being counting discs is also supported by the fact that on some of the bone discs with indented edge incised numbers can be seen. There is the possibility that this type of discs were counting discs, CALCULI in a system where the place, value is denoted on the disc itself. Counting discs with concentric circles signified quantities of one particular place value (one among tens and tens among hundreds) while discs decorated with concentric circles denoted numerals belonging to the other place value. Fig. 29. ivory labels: gladiator's discharge token and ivory game-piece The demand for written records as proved by the clay tablets of the Near East appeared first in commerce, in market and in administration. Roman trading activity spanning over continents could not do without a system of exact accounting and inventorizing of goods. In the provinces, too, the bone relics connected to written records are not reminiscences of civilization or culture taken in a strict sense but those of commerce. Even on the writing tablets dealt with above in this chapter primarily commercial notes, reminders could be written instead of writing practice. I am convinced that these objects are above all the relics of trade and commercial life; that is why I am dealing with counters and tags in the present chapter. (No. 560.) These bone lamellae can also be found in any Roman settlement. They are 10-12 cm long, 2-3 cm wide thin bone plates. From one end, with a narrow neck, a circular plate is cut. Egger refers to similar bone plates unearthed at Magdalensberg as money bag tickets.

110 On the plaque from Szőny there is a hole serving for attaching and the edge of the disc is indented. The other tags could be attached at the narrow