The article fails to mention a major hypothesis that immediately came to mind when I saw the object. Wikipedia agrees [1]:
> It has also been suggested that they might have been an object to test the skill of a metalsmith, perhaps as part of a portfolio to demonstrate their capabilities to customers or as a way to qualify for a certain status in a collegium (guild). This speculation is based on the historic cost of bronze and the level of skill necessary to cast such an object.
It’s complexity screams “apprentice’s graduating casting project” which would also explain why some were found with coin hoards - they’re sentimental objects kept by successful blacksmiths; the one thing they’d keep to represent an entire career.
I think the major argument against this theory is the map, as the article states. Most of the theories for their use are actually invalid simply by looking at the map of finds.
Fishing, toys, music, games, things that were global in the roman empire.
What the map shows is that it was used in the colder parts of the empire.
That map looks exactly what I would expect it to look like if it was passed on from master to apprentice metalworker as part of a graduating project.
These wouldn't have been products sold to customers and traded, they would have been symbols that the individuals had achieved mastery within a specific lineage of artisans restricted to that region. Almost all knowledge was communicated via oral means because scribes were very expensive and most people were illiterate - there's zero reason to expect a wide distribution throughout the empire.
> Fishing, toys, music, games, things that were global in the roman empire.
I'm fairly certain that every-day practices for all of these things were far from universal across the empire; it's a huge assumption to think that, especially considering that we don't actually know all that much about some of these thing and that we don't know what we don't know (e.g. it was only a few months ago that they found evidence of gladiator fights in Britain; it's entirely possible – even likely – that there were wide-spread well-known games in some regions that we just don't know about).
I'm not saying it can't be related to heat, but I wouldn't be so quick to jump to that conclusion based solely on the location where these things were found.
Each object has 12 sides, so 12 holes. For hundreds of exemplars thats thousands of holes. The holes are described as having different sizes on the same dodecahedron. For being an object of mystery, one would assume a catalog of features to have been constructed, but I am not aware of any.
I think it's an interesting hypothesis; it's definitely a complex piece. However there are some things like the different size holes and the little knobs that I don't see adding complexity to the dodecahedron and seem to be more functional to me. It seems like it could be rotated to put the right size hole whereve it needs to be and the knobs are placed so it can stand no matter what hole is chosen
That's actually what gave me the idea in the first place: I think the knobs resemble practice sprues [1] or jig holding points.
The holes would likely have been cut using premade templates so the builders just used a different side pattern on each side, perhaps to demonstrate centering.
If you have metal working tools, wood or stone isn’t a bad medium to design small objects. I would expect many more wooden etc examples to have been created that didn’t last.
Also they look cool. Also they're a platonic solid. The golden ratio is built into pentagons, they're tricky to construct with a compass, basically they're cool
Why the specific Gallo-Roman geographic distribution? Presumably blacksmiths existed and needed "visiting cards" across the Roman Empire?
As an impromptu digital armchair archeologist I'd say this very specific geographic dispersion suggests cultural / religious significance. In any case it weighs against a purely utilitarian role (that would easily diffuse across the empire).
Wax residue was found inside "one or two". Possibly used in a ceremony using candles. The protrusions might have been yarn anchors, not to knit gloves, but to form elaborate ritualistic symbols. I.e. imagine the bare metal covered with a colorful pattern that would be wound and unwound to match the occasion.
Considering the size and makeup of the Roman empire, I wouldn't be surprised if there were substantial differences in every-day purely utilitarian activities for no other reason than "that's how we do it here". People didn't even speak the same language (Britain never adopted Latin as a common language, and Gaul didn't until after these devices are dated).
Unfortunately a lot of these details about every-day life are lost to history as no one bothered to write it down "as everyone already knows about it".
Archeologists classifying every object they can’t explain the purpose of as a cult/religious/ritualistic item is a bit of cliche. I wonder what future archeologists might think about some of the stuff we have in a couple of thousand years if some societal collapse occurs in between.
> Possibly used in a ceremony using candles
It’s possible they could have also used it to hold candles outside of religious ceremonies.
I could have sworn that the last time this came up there was a blog where someone had taken measurements from hundreds of them and shown similarities and deduced a use. But darned if I can find it.
I can only imagine some archeologist looking at the Filipino giant spoon/fork hanging on our kitchen walls and wondering what it would be used for.
It's not like anyone actually writes down house decoration theory. You just sorta pick up on it based on visiting a bunch of people's homes in a community.
But it does have cultural significance. Filipino dishes are served with a fork and a spoon, not with a knife as is common in the west, or chopsticks as in some other Asian cultures. It is a very culturally specific thing, and something that hopefully is written somewhere. If not, maybe this little conversation will do the trick and be referenced ages from now
Because if you do art, you want to make something unique. Artists don't create exact replicas of the same object so often that a hundred of them are found over 1000 years later (which implies that there were probably many thousands of these).
This would suggest that the "cool S" that showed up in notebooks, on walls, etc. throughout my youth was a religious/ritual symbol. Same with stuffed squirrels and singing bass and "Bless This Mess" crochets and barn stars...
Readit News
> It has also been suggested that they might have been an object to test the skill of a metalsmith, perhaps as part of a portfolio to demonstrate their capabilities to customers or as a way to qualify for a certain status in a collegium (guild). This speculation is based on the historic cost of bronze and the level of skill necessary to cast such an object.
It’s complexity screams “apprentice’s graduating casting project” which would also explain why some were found with coin hoards - they’re sentimental objects kept by successful blacksmiths; the one thing they’d keep to represent an entire career.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron
Fishing, toys, music, games, things that were global in the roman empire.
What the map shows is that it was used in the colder parts of the empire.
These wouldn't have been products sold to customers and traded, they would have been symbols that the individuals had achieved mastery within a specific lineage of artisans restricted to that region. Almost all knowledge was communicated via oral means because scribes were very expensive and most people were illiterate - there's zero reason to expect a wide distribution throughout the empire.
I'm fairly certain that every-day practices for all of these things were far from universal across the empire; it's a huge assumption to think that, especially considering that we don't actually know all that much about some of these thing and that we don't know what we don't know (e.g. it was only a few months ago that they found evidence of gladiator fights in Britain; it's entirely possible – even likely – that there were wide-spread well-known games in some regions that we just don't know about).
I'm not saying it can't be related to heat, but I wouldn't be so quick to jump to that conclusion based solely on the location where these things were found.
Each object has 12 sides, so 12 holes. For hundreds of exemplars thats thousands of holes. The holes are described as having different sizes on the same dodecahedron. For being an object of mystery, one would assume a catalog of features to have been constructed, but I am not aware of any.
I believe they were used to test coin sizes (could be used by both scrapers and verifiers), see my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35946841
Such a hypothesis should be testable: catalog the hundreds of dodecahedra, one row per item, and 12 columns for the radii.
Collect all occurring thousands of radii and sort, and observe density peaks and compare age of item and coins of era with radii.
The holes would likely have been cut using premade templates so the builders just used a different side pattern on each side, perhaps to demonstrate centering.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprue_(manufacturing)#Injectio...
As an impromptu digital armchair archeologist I'd say this very specific geographic dispersion suggests cultural / religious significance. In any case it weighs against a purely utilitarian role (that would easily diffuse across the empire).
Wax residue was found inside "one or two". Possibly used in a ceremony using candles. The protrusions might have been yarn anchors, not to knit gloves, but to form elaborate ritualistic symbols. I.e. imagine the bare metal covered with a colorful pattern that would be wound and unwound to match the occasion.
Unfortunately a lot of these details about every-day life are lost to history as no one bothered to write it down "as everyone already knows about it".
> Possibly used in a ceremony using candles
It’s possible they could have also used it to hold candles outside of religious ceremonies.
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)
Yep! https://www.romandodecahedron.com/calendar
It's not like anyone actually writes down house decoration theory. You just sorta pick up on it based on visiting a bunch of people's homes in a community.
Another theory of mine is a candle holder which adapts to stump size.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasta#History