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Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#51

Post by krisoft »

anentropic wrote: post #22

A theory I saw recently suggested that they may have been used to hold candles, as night lights (could still have had some religious or ritual component too). The holes all being different diameters would then relate to different sized candles being needed to last all night, for longer and shorter nights at different times of the year. The twelve faces presumably corresponding to 12 months on the Julian calendar, whi…

> The holes all being different diameters would then relate to different sized candles being needed to last all night, for longer and shorter nights at different times of the year.

I don't know. There are stranger things of course, but why would you care about that? If you need light you just burn the candle until you no longer need the light. If it gets too short you get a new candle. If you no longer need light (for example because the sun has risen) you put it out.

Having a bunch of candles with different thicknesses, and a complicated and presumably expensive tool to measure them does not feel like the way to go forward.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#52

Post by berkes »

anentropic wrote: post #22

A theory I saw recently suggested that they may have been used to hold candles, as night lights (could still have had some religious or ritual component too). The holes all being different diameters would then relate to different sized candles being needed to last all night, for longer and shorter nights at different times of the year. The twelve faces presumably corresponding to 12 months on the Julian calendar, whi…

But then the versions found would have to be the same size. Which they are not, according to the article.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#53

Post by dejj »

jhoechtl wrote: post #2

They are to portion noodles

No.

> it’s been buried for 1,700 years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti#History says:

> The first written record of pasta comes from the Talmud in the 5th century AD

> In the West, it may have first been worked into long, thin forms in Sicily around the 12th century

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#55

Post by hprotagonist »

wirrbel wrote: post #14
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

and naalbinding needs simpler tools.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#56

Post by stabbles »

Loughla wrote: post #4

My favorite thing about archaeology is that if they have no idea whatever about the things they find. . . >were used for ritualistic or religious purposes Don't know what it is? Religion baby.

Similarly the overuse evolutionary biology.

Obviously this ... seemingly useless feature must have been ... crucial to survival of this species.

I guess Thomas Kuhn calls this ordinary science. Explanation within the framework. But it's incredibly dull

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#57

Post by NL807 »

Loughla wrote: post #4

My favorite thing about archaeology is that if they have no idea whatever about the things they find. . . >were used for ritualistic or religious purposes Don't know what it is? Religion baby.

Or when they find dicks, drawn, sculpted, or otherwise:

>it must be a fertility symbol

The ancients didn't do dick jokes/humour apparently.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#58

Post by Fluorescence »

mildchalupa wrote: post #16

I thought it was determined to be a glove finger knitting apparatus.

Hmm, I'm not convinced.

The only geometry the knitting demonstrations justify is "pins around hole". I don't see an argument for the dodecahedron shape or the cast metal. A vastly cheaper wooden jig with nails would service just as well and offer much better ergonomic possibilities, like a handle. The knitting with the finger growing inside the dodec looks unhelpful and implausible.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#60

Post by Grimblewald »

mildchalupa wrote: post #16

I thought it was determined to be a glove finger knitting apparatus.

It was suggested and some old bird even showed it was possible to do it, but it was not a complete explanation, especially given some variations in designs that made glove making hard. Another plausible option is it served as a calendar of sorts. Equally mundane explaining the broad distribution.
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