HistoryPorn

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Relive the Past in Jaw-Dropping Detail!

HistoryPorn is for photographs (or, if it can be found, film) of the past, recent or distant! Give us a little snapshot of history!

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Pictures of old artifacts and museum pieces should go to History Artifacts

Illustrations and paintings should go to History Drawings

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Roman Dodecahedrons: A Mystifying Archaeological Find (hackaday.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Much about archaeology can be described as trying to figure out the context in which objects and constructions should be interpreted. A good example of this are the metal dodecahedrons (twelve-sided shape) which have been found during archaeological excavations at former Roman sites. Since 1739 over 115 of them have been recorded, most recently a fully intact copper specimen found near the Lincolnshire village of Norton Disney during the Summer of 2023 by a local group of archaeologists.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

There are similar objects that are icosahedral (d20 - shaped) that do not have holes, but do have the external nubs.

The glove theory is popular, but that style of knitting isn't known to have been practiced for more than a thousand years after these objects were created. They have never been found with knitting needles, or other thread-related tools.

There's also a bit of a paradox with record keeping. Very common things were almost never recorded - what would be the point of that after all, everyone already knows about them - and these objects don't appear in surviving records. However, we haven't found enough of these for them to have been all that common, and they seem to be confined to Gallo-roman areas, suggesting a sub-cultural difference.

The unsatisfying answer is that we will likely never know.