Thread by @abby_fecit

#EpigraphyTuesday Spring has Sprung!🌷 This delicately punched piece of copper alloy, 8cm (ca. the width of a credit card) shows how #Roman soldiers on Hadrian's wall measured the passing seasons.
But what is it? 🧵1/4
🏛️📷 @VindolandaTrust

@VindolandaTrust @DocCrom @roamintheempire @AncientRomeLive @TheClassicalCo Answer: We're not entirely sure. It was probably part of a larger ring (ca. 35cm in total), which roughly labelled the days (K), weeks (N), mid-month (Id) & the equinox (Ae). Some suggest that it was a clock, others a calendar... 2/4

📷Labels added.
cambridge.org/core/journals/…

@VindolandaTrust @DocCrom @roamintheempire @AncientRomeLive @TheClassicalCo Found in a granary, it could have helped to time night watches, but the precious timepiece was likely in the principia (headquarters), used as a celestial calendar (horologium) or an anaphoric clock. This image of control was also in Rome: showing the same equinox (in Greek) 3/4.

@VindolandaTrust @DocCrom @roamintheempire @AncientRomeLive @TheClassicalCo Examples of similar devices have been found across Europe, often in army camps: a similar find (3.8 cm) from near Chichester. Were these peg calendars (parapegmata), complex water clocks (clepsydra) or municipal monuments (horologium): Who can say? 4/4
📷finds.org.uk/database/artef…

@VindolandaTrust @DocCrom @roamintheempire @AncientRomeLive @TheClassicalCo This small object is far too fascinating to be covered by a single thread. To learn more follow links to articles in the 🧵 and/or this informative intro to different types of clocks & how they worked.
the-past.com/feature/a-roma…