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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

#271

Post by weakfish »

chrisco255 wrote: post #117
rickcecil wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CE means “common era” which refers to the same time period that AD does, which stands for Anno Domini and means “the year of our lord,” which is rooted in the Christian faith. You will also see “BCE” and it means Before Common Era, which replaces BC, which means “Before Christ”. The newer terms are more inclusive.

We never canceled other religious names in our calendar, including the months named after Roman gods or the days of the week named after Nordic / Celtic gods.

It’s not being “cancelled”

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#272

Post by yetanotherloser »

littlekey wrote: post #266
yetanotherloser wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. From a certain point of view these are the same thing

I had that possibility in mind, yes :-)

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#273

Post by PhasmaFelis »

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!)

I remember "reading" that as a kid, when I was too young to really understand the text, and thinking it was a horror story.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#274

Post by someuser2345 »

klntsky wrote: post #214
Levitz wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe in some 2.000 years digital archeologists will wonder what in the world did we use fizzbuzz for

Or monkey NFTs

I'm currently alive, and I still don't know what they're used for.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#275

Post by CamperBob2 »

cubefox wrote: post #225
dylan604 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine came from realizing all of the religions have the same basic stories all credited to their deity as the cause, yet all saying the other deities didn't exist or were false gods.

Ah yes, that's the other good point. Really they are parts of the more general incoherency: "My religion is correct, while all the other religions, current or from the past, are mere superstition."

Then there's my favorite, Pascal's Wager: "Why not accept my particular God? What do you have to lose?" Advocates of the Wager never seem to consider what Zeus's opinion might be.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#276

Post by layer8 »

tempestn wrote: post #217
layer8 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wouldn’t really explain why the holes have different sizes on different sides, and why some of the dodecahedrons were found in wealthy women’s graves.

Seems like a wealthy person's toy/puzzle to me. Maybe it came with a set of wooden balls to fit into the holes.

That doesn’t explain why it was predominantly found in military locations.

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#277

Post by prox »

jzebedee wrote: post #175
SamBam wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really buy that theory. There's no explanation for why it needs to be this very-hard-to-cast bronze dodecahedron, instead of just a wooden board with pegs and holes, which is all that would be needed for the video above.

It's possible that most were made out of common materials. Only those made of something sufficiently resilient survived for us to find.

Basically a show off piece for those with enough coin!

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#279

Post by dang »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #68

Previously on HN: What were these Roman objects used for? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25237271

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

The mysterious dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35937540 - May 2023 (100 comments)

No one is certain what Roman bronze dodecahedrons were used for (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29717215 - Dec 2021 (207 comments)

What were these Roman objects used for? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25237271 - Nov 2020 (37 comments)

The Mysterious Bronze Objects That Have Baffled Archaeologists for Centuries - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21439351 - Nov 2019 (7 comments)

Re: Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England

#280

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

tarikjn wrote: post #189
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.

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"

If you try hard enough you could probably come up with some resemblances to male/female parts and thus classify this as belonging to a fertility cult.
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