Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

smithsonianmag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 403 posts

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#11

Post by hprotagonist »

RecycledEle wrote: post #9

Just because a measuring device is not standards referenced does not mean it can not be used to measure. If I need a peg to match the size of a drill bit, any collection of 12 holes is likely to have one the size of the drill bit that lets me tell my peg maker to "make the pegs this size." Handymen are just cussed enough* to not label any of them, and to expect the FNG (new guy) to remember which of the 12 unlabeled…

implicit knowledge is everywhere.

the trick is realizing that this isn’t a bad thing.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#12

Post by gaazoh »

taneq wrote: post #5

One theory (albeit contested) is that they were used as a jig to knit gloves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76AvV601yJ0

That's kind of neat, but it looks too complex of an object for that purpose. A knitting spool (aka a jig to knit gloves) can be as simple as wood ring with nails around it. Even though it might work, it looks way too precious for such a common tool.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spool_knitting for pictures

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#14

Post by wirrbel »

taneq wrote: post #5

One theory (albeit contested) is that they were used as a jig to knit gloves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76AvV601yJ0

> The Historian Richard Rutt conservatively suggests that knitting originated in Egypt between 500 and 1200 A.D.

Haven’t watched the video but the evidence for knitting in England under Roman rule certainly isn’t there. There were other methods to make knitting-like garments though so maybe this is explained in the video but I doubt that Romans knitted with this

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#15

Post by boffinAudio »

I thought these were thought to be looms for knitting finger sections for woollen gloves? I seem to recall someone testing this theory and actually producing very well-fitting gloves - and each of the holes in the design are a different size, to support the different finger-sizes of the customer.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#19

Post by Waterluvian »

mrob wrote: post #10

I like the theory that it's an examination piece to qualify as a master metalworker. Casting a flawless dodecahedron could have been a way to demonstrate your skill. The shape is somewhat arbitrary: anything that's both difficult to cast and easy to examine for quality would work, but once people started making dodecahedrons that's what people expected and it became a kind of standard.

Interesting idea. I wonder if when comparing all 100 there’s indicators that each are effectively unique in their manufacturing.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#20

Post by [deleted] »

RecycledEle wrote: post #9

Just because a measuring device is not standards referenced does not mean it can not be used to measure. If I need a peg to match the size of a drill bit, any collection of 12 holes is likely to have one the size of the drill bit that lets me tell my peg maker to "make the pegs this size." Handymen are just cussed enough* to not label any of them, and to expect the FNG (new guy) to remember which of the 12 unlabeled…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN