That dodecahedron featured in the first pic is swank af. Hats off to the ancients.
I've crafted a few in various media. Getting it right is tricky. Really makes you appreciate 3d printing.
The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
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Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#12I thought it was a range finding device?
how would that work?
Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#13That dodecahedron featured in the first pic is swank af. Hats off to the ancients. I've crafted a few in various media. Getting it right is tricky. Really makes you appreciate 3d printing.
If they’re tricky to produce well, that suggests another possibility - maybe they were a journeyman piece for bronze crafters. Does it require combining a number of different techniques to produce? Would deficiencies in particular techniques manifest in obvious flaws in the finished artifact?
Or maybe they’re more like fizzbuzz for gallo-Roman bronze artificers. You show up at an interview and they ask you to knock out one of these to prove you’re not an idiot.
Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#14That dodecahedron featured in the first pic is swank af. Hats off to the ancients. I've crafted a few in various media. Getting it right is tricky. Really makes you appreciate 3d printing.
My guess has been that they are an item a journeyman blacksmith had to create to be promoted to master. From the photos I've seen, they're similar but not identical. So they likely aren't being made as a regular production item like nails or hinges would be.
Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#15The article fails to mention a major hypothesis that immediately came to mind when I saw the object. Wikipedia agrees [1]:
> It has also been suggested that they might have been an object to test the skill of a metalsmith, perhaps as part of a portfolio to demonstrate their capabilities to customers or as a way to qualify for a certain status in a collegium (guild). This speculation is based on the historic cost of bronze and the level of skill necessary to cast such an object.
It’s complexity screams “apprentice’s graduating casting project” which would also explain why some were found with coin hoards - they’re sentimental objects kept by successful blacksmiths; the one thing they’d keep to represent an entire career.
Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#16One of the suggestions was as a mounting point for metal or wooden poles. This suggested, to me at least use as a joint for scaffolding. The holes of differing sizes accommodating pole diameters suited to each purpose for a given scaffold.
On the outside the protrusions could have been used for tying ropes that secure the joint to the pole. Could have been very strong if also threaded inside the dodecahedrons as well. All reusable and modular. Alright, may be a total fantasy though.
The thing that nullifies this as an idea for me is it would be expected therefore to find absolutely thousands of them. I don't know enough about it, but I got the impression it's much less than that, and it'd seem brass would last better.
Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#17I thought it was a range finding device?
Could be, using the holes. That would make the size difference an non issue but then why the ones without holes.
Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#18I always find it interesting that objects like these must have had to have a purpose. Why couldn’t it have been a piece of art simply for decoration?
Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#19One of the suggestions was as a mounting point for metal or wooden poles. This suggested, to me at least use as a joint for scaffolding. The holes of differing sizes accommodating pole diameters suited to each purpose for a given scaffold. On the outside the protrusions could have been used for tying ropes that secure the joint to the pole. Could have been very strong if also threaded inside the dodecahedrons as well…
Regular dodecahedra don't tile space, so these wouldn't make much sense as scaffold nodes. For regular space frames with identical nodes, truncated octahedra are more useful.
Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire
#20One of the suggestions was as a mounting point for metal or wooden poles. This suggested, to me at least use as a joint for scaffolding. The holes of differing sizes accommodating pole diameters suited to each purpose for a given scaffold. On the outside the protrusions could have been used for tying ropes that secure the joint to the pole. Could have been very strong if also threaded inside the dodecahedrons as well…
I would also suspect that, if they were used for building purposes, some of these artifacts would be found in situ with poles still inserted into or through them, thus being evidence of their use and removing all ambiguity.
As there is only ambiguity in the analysis of these, according to the article, then my conclusion is that no dodecahedrons have been recovered showing evidence of being used like this.