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The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

atlasobscura.com

71–80 of 103 posts

Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

#71
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. It was a pretty interesting read. Was it the calendar one?

That seems familiar. Yep! https://www.romandodecahedron.com/calendar

“In that year, over 250 bishops came together at Nicaea to discuss the increasing problems concerning the date of Eastern. At this meting”

Should those be “Easter” and “meeting”? I’m not sure if these are misspellings or spellings I’m not familiar with.

Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the major argument against this theory is the map, as the article states. Most of the theories for their use are actually invalid simply by looking at the map of finds. Fishing, toys, music, games, things that were global in the roman empire. What the map shows is that it was used in the colder parts of the empire.

That map looks exactly what I would expect it to look like if it was passed on from master to apprentice metalworker as part of a graduating project. These wouldn't have been products sold to customers and traded, they would have been symbols that the individuals had achieved mastery within a specific lineage of artisans restricted to that region. Almost all knowledge was communicated via oral means because scribes w…

I think metalworking also has the longest history of sophisticated development in current day Northern Europe. The dispersion on the map I think re-enforces both that history and the notion of a portfolio piece.

Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

#73

The 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 b…

Also they look cool. Also they're a platonic solid. The golden ratio is built into pentagons, they're tricky to construct with a compass, basically they're cool

Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

#74
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems familiar. Yep! https://www.romandodecahedron.com/calendar

“In that year, over 250 bishops came together at Nicaea to discuss the increasing problems concerning the date of Eastern. At this meting” Should those be “Easter” and “meeting”? I’m not sure if these are misspellings or spellings I’m not familiar with.

Looks like typos to me.

Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

#76
post #3

I could have sworn that the last time this came up there was a blog where someone had taken measurements from hundreds of them and shown similarities and deduced a use. But darned if I can find it.

https://tinkerings.org/2020/12/25/roman-dodecahedrons-part-i...

Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

#77
post #31
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Aside from cubes, what regular polyhedra can you tile space with? --nvrmnd. Apparently there's only 1. Cube

I find rhombic dodecahedra fascinating. Even made a couple dozen from cardboard to play with.

Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

#79
post #58
post #18

I 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?

Because if you do art, you want to make something unique. Artists don't create exact replicas of the same object so often that a hundred of them are found over 1000 years later (which implies that there were probably many thousands of these).

This would suggest that the "cool S" that showed up in notebooks, on walls, etc. throughout my youth was a religious/ritual symbol. Same with stuffed squirrels and singing bass and "Bless This Mess" crochets and barn stars...

Re: The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

#80

The 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 b…

Then why are there ones made of stone?

If you have metal working tools, wood or stone isn’t a bad medium to design small objects. I would expect many more wooden etc examples to have been created that didn’t last.
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