## 3 Results of the Materials Analysis  
For each find, the mean dimensions (i.e., mean side for cubes and mean diameter for spheres and circles, Table 1) were calculated for statistical analysis and comparison purposes. The details of the statistical distributions of dimensions and shapes for each typology of material are reported and discussed by [PERSON] et al. [11]. Here we only report the observation that independent of the size and shape of the object, the approximate density obtained by the calculated weight/volume ratio is constant, and indicates similar raw materials and manufacturing techniques. Moreover, the density of the ceramic used for the production of the dice is similar to the one of bone dice. This characteristic may be relevant in the throwing of the dice. In each class of objects, or considering the whole set of finds, no occurrence of specific values of weight, and no system of multiple or submultiple values was observed. It is, therefore, possible to exclude the use of these objects as weights. This deduction is supported also by the absence of hooks, holes, or lateral grooves that are generally present in Bronze Age and Iron Age weights ([11], and references reported therein). As expected from the visual observations and the preliminary density measurements, the main composing material of the ceramic bodies is a common mixture of clay and sand, fired at relatively low temperatures (600-800 \({}^{\circ}\)C). The range of firing temperature is deducted from the absence in the XRD analyses of clay minerals that decompose generally at about 600 \({}^{\circ}\)C or below, and the presence of micas that commonly start dehydroxylation transformations at temperatures of about 900 \({}^{\circ}\)C. Apart from the VFSP251 washer disc that was manufactured by filing and abrading a recycled ceramic fragment of common  
Figure 2: The dice CDA95-C35-F2 from Castello di Annone with signs, dots and two Etruscan numbers in letters [12]. Scale bar: 4 mm. fired pottery, all other objects were roughly put into shape by hand modeling the clay paste before firing. Most of the decorating nail marks visible on the washer-like discs (Figure 3) were also made before firing. Figure 3: (**a**) nail marks visible on the flat surface of the VF-PU210-E10 washer disc; (**b,c**) vertical nail incisions made on the lateral edge of the VF-pd571-E41 washer disc. The scale bars are (**a,b**) 2 mm, and (**c**) 1 mm. Indeed the systematic use of ceramics for such small pieces and for dice, in particular, is rather unusual since the great part of the investigated dice of Etruscan [13,14] or Roman [15] period are made of bone or ivory. Roman or pre-Roman dice made of amber, glass, metal, or stone are indeed known, though they are a very small fraction of those found in tombs and archaeological sites. This already indicates that the investigated assemblage from Villa del Foro has cultural aspects rather different from the main Etrusco-Roman tradition. As a matter of fact there are no known occurrences of Etruscan dice made of ceramics. The only reported ceramic dice are a few III millennium BC samples from the Middle East (Tepe Gawra, Iraq), and the Indus Valley (Mohenjo-Daro, Pakistan) [16,17], and several clay dice of the VII-VI centuries BC from Greek tombs [18]. The relevant presence of eighteen unnumbered cubic dice in the Villa del Foro context is also to be regarded as highly unusual. The only similar ceramic object known is from the nearby site of Castello di Annone (about 20 km west of Villa del Foro). Interestingly, in Castello di Annone was found also a ceramic dice with two numbers engraved in Etruscan letters (Figure 2) that were interpreted by [PERSON] [12] as \(\Theta\)U (thu) and za (zal), respectively one and two. On the other faces of the cube are randomly impressed numerous points, and the dice seem to show the distribution: 1 (in letters)/18, 2 (in letters)/12 or 13, 9/22.