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Usage of prehistoric tali (astragali) from Nadin, Croatia

Talus (formerly known as astragalus) is one of the tarsal bones with prominent ridges proximally and cylindrical part distally. Due to their unique shape, tali have been used through history for games, divination, offerings to the gods, rituals, talismans, measuring and loom weights. A total of 70 tali were found in Nadin, Croatia. They were excavated from the Tomb 105 dated to 2nd and 1st century BC, where over 220 human skeletons were exhumed. The archaeozoological analysis was conducted in order to determine animal species and the type of modifications made by humans. Even 92, 86% of tali belonged to small ruminants (sheep and goat) and the rest of them belonged to cattle, pigs, and dogs. Pigs’ tali were artificially flattened distally, whereas 17 small ruminants’ tali were flattened laterally and two laterally and distally. Drill holes were recorded on one goat and three sheep tali. The sheep talus with two holes on plantar side also had asterix engraved on its lateral side. Cutmarks were found on the dorsal side of two small ruminant tali. One sheep talus was horizontally cut on its proximal side. A large number of artifically flattend tali indicate their usage as dice or burnisher. Those which were found with holes could have been used as amulets. Unfortunately, it is not possible to establish the original position of the deceased in Tomb 105 due to their secondary movement, except for a few deceased in the crouched position in the lowest layers. So, it is not possible to attribute certain parts of an attire, jewelry or other material, including tali to a particular person, gender or age group. Therefore, without clear context, it is hard to infer the role of tali, however, we can conclude that they had special meaning to the people in Nadin.

talus, astragalus, Nadin, North Dalmatia, Croatia, Late Iron Age

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