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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

#231

Post by leptons »

Beijinger wrote: post #141

Mysterious? I thought this is a solved problem. Especially also taking into account the boarders of the Roman Empire and the places where they were found. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76AvV601yJ0

This video is mentioned multiple times in this thread and it's got to be the most ridiculous take for what these things are.

These were expensive and difficult to cast. They are made of metal which is very expensive at the time. There's no reason knitting would require a complex metal cast object of this kind when a wooden jig would be far easier and cheaper to produce.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#233

Post by SantalBlush »

throwup238 wrote: post #114
ragazzina wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are they often found in coin hoards then? This makes no sense.

They’ve got a lot of sentimental value to the original owners of those hoards. It actually makes more sense: master blacksmiths were far more likely to be wealthy enough to have coin hoards and considered the objects symbolic of the trade that made that wealth.

A lot of folks in this thread are latching on to this theory and making speculations to support it.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#234

Post by hiatus »

pinko wrote: post #201
tarikjn wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The equivalent today would be 3Dbenchy boats -- "we found an identical boat toy design in multiple sites made of different plastic materials, colors and sizes. It is spread universally around the World cities, found in sites of crafts, leading us to believe it is an idol of a new 21st century religion predominant among workers of the arts and crafts"

Along these lines, if you haven't ever seen it, check out _Motel of the Mysteries_ by David Macaulay. (Yes, that David Macaulay!)

A Canticle For Leibowitz touches on a similar theme.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#235

Post by Buttons840 »

Astraco wrote: post #182
dejj wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You must be fun at parties

Keeping the mystery alive is fun

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#238

Post by whoopdedo »

yetanotherloser wrote: post #204
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.

I like that theory too and offer a followon explanation: to make a dodecahedron you must make an accurate regular pentagon and this is not trivial with ancient geometric methods, you need to have learned a thing or two to get there. This makes it a better test than, say, an icosahedron. But we do know that the Roman empire wasn't completely unfamiliar with icosahedral dice, probably for a magical or divinatory purpos…

> probably for a magical or divinatory purpose rather than determining whether your wizard made her saving throw.

Why should I assume humans playing recreational games is a recent invention?

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#240

Post by wonderwonder »

Did people not just buy things for decoration in the Roman empire? Seems like we try to attach deep meaning to everything discovered in older civilizations. When many could just have some mundane meaningless purpose like decoration.

Imagine the poor future people that seek to find meaning in the unearthed funko pops and gold spray painted pine cones of our time.

Reminds me of the guy that buried flaming hot cheetos in an elaborate coffin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6_C7z4XvOQ

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