Game
Tokens
Several hundred objects have been found so far that are made of the walls of broken vessels, which have provisionally been named tokens photo 33. They were made by chipping the rims in a circular shape, more or less carefully, and the edges of some of them were very carefully smoothed. They are of various diameters, from 1.5 to 9 cm, although most frequently 3-4 cm. Very rarely, there is a circular hole drilled in the center of some photo 32 of them. Only a few of the pieces were made especially from fresh clay photo 28, so it is not quite clear whether the purpose of these objects was the same. In “Stari Vinogradi” they are most frequently found in structures from the 1st century photo 29, 30, 31 although they are present in the 3rd-4th century photo 92, 113. as well. As proof that they are not just objects that came to the younger structures from the older ones, which takes place with the rest of the pottery as well, there are tokens made of pottery sherds that, although very small, can be dated reliably to the 3rd or the 4th century photo 114, 115.
The purpose of the “tokens” has not been fully disclosed but it can be presumed that they were used for some kind of game. They can first and foremost be linked to the game of “tossing to the line”. Such an assumption is logical based on the number of these objects, their simple make and their presence in waste material throughout the site, as well as on the experience of our contemporary juvenile population that played the said game with bottlecaps and worthless coins.
Picture 2/15: Game of "tossing coins at the line"
Analogies for this type of objects can be found sporadically in other periods and cultures as well, although they are not as numerous, while from the late La Tène period analogies from Slovakia are known at present.
Rattle
As a unique object there is the find of a broken rattle photo 80 with one ball, all of baked clay. The rattle has a hole in the middle that was probably used to tie and hang it above a child’s crib.
