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Hella unlikely they were used to knit gloves
Unlikely why?
Here's a video of it being used for that: https://youtu.be/76AvV601yJ0?si=kvdh4ZLiBCmyldPN
I have seen people argue that "they are pretty intricate and expensive things to use only for the purposes of knitting gloves. ". To them, I would like to submit my wife's $1100 sewing machine that definitely gets used, and isn't just some weird status symbol among creative types.
Just because you could use it for knitting it doesn't mean it was its purpose.
There's not a lot of detail, but you can check on the Wiki why it's ultimately an unlikely explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron#Purpose
Thanks! I really like the idea that it was a test of skill of a blacksmith.
Knitting isn’t attested until almost a millennium after this artifact was created. Nålbinding was practiced during this era in a variety of areas and can look very similar, but is mechanically very diffferent.
Ofk. They just made them to troll future archaeologist
Just like my code. It's obvious what it does and doesn't need documentation.. until I try to understand it 2 years later.
My mother has a fascination with Roman Dodecahedra, so I 3D printed her one for Christmas. She hasn't knitted any gloves with them yet. (And may never, but she still likes it and has it sitting on the mantle over the fireplace.)
Printing a Roman dodecahedron seems like an interesting torture test for a 3D printer, plenty of overhangs.
Yeah, the particular model I printed was specifically designed to be easy-ish to print. It's printed in like 32 parts (one for each face and one connector for each vertex) and requires assembly after printing. All to avoid overhangs and such.
But yeah. Raw-dogging it with the supports would be pretty nightmarish. Lol.
Every Roman has a plumbus in their home. It's clearly a Latin word.
E plumbus unum
Archeologists when we're ancient:
"Wtf is these?"
"I dunno but I bet my mum could knit a glove with it"
It'll take them a single step on them to understand these were used in wars. That they are no longer used because they were probably banned for human rights violations.
Children's caltrop set.
Rule number 1 of archaeology: if you don't know what it is, then it's religious.
That's a prime chaotic resonator, It's to apply fossils to your gear..
By the shining golden arse of innocence, I got that reference.
It's a rope junction, with the different holes for different knots and rope bundles, with the spokes serving as rope bend/end points. Presumably it would get weeded out as the places where it was employed either stopped making use of them, like perhaps the weather fabric roof shielding of the coliseum, or ended up using more specialized means, like for sailing.
You don't know what to do with the three seashells?
I like how archeologists never come to the conclusion that something could just be an art trend.
Everything has to have a useful purpose even though we all own stuff with no actual purpose.
The default bucket that archeologists throw stuff into if they really don't know is "religious object".
Oftentimes, that’s a sort of inside joke. If it’s even remotely probe-shaped, they assume it was used for sex. But since that doesn’t look nice on academic papers, they’ll use “ritual” as a euphemism.
Seriously, archeologists find a lot of ancient dildos.
The wiki on this specific object briefly mentions it may have been for decoration
Yeah it's funny that's never the conclusion but logically it makes sense to not dismiss something as unknown until we're sure it wasn't used for anything else. Still can't wait for future civilizations to be very confused when they see my collection of funny looking coins.
How dare you assert my wall of funkopops has no purpose!
They do come to that conclusion all the time, but in some cases it's impossible to know for sure. If they don't know for sure then they're not going to say it's definitely for decoration only, but they'll list it as an option, which they have done for this object.
Until I looked at the comments here I thought this was the little box thingy that Shadowheart had in BG3.
I like the idea that it was a blacksmith "benchy." Archeologists might do the same with the one 3D printing hobbyists make.
Archeologists in the future: WHY THE FUCK ARE THERE SO MANY LITTLE BOATS?!
What else would it be? It's obviously a Katamari Damacy.
I love how, in this very thread, there are 3-4 pretty confident (and completely different) answers stating, without much doubt, its obvious purpose.
My theory is that they had no practical purpose, they were just a trendy knickknack that eventually fell out of fashion. A Roman equivalent of a fidget spinner or something.
In a few thousand years whatever has become of humanity will be digging up fidget spinners and wondering about them in the same way we do with dodecahedrons. It's not as if anyone will have been preserving fidget spinner media for millennia to explain them.
My personal idea is that they are objects created both to flex metalworking craftsman skill and in worship of sacred geometry. Ancient peoples ascribed divinity to the harmonies of the universe, especially the harmonies in mathematics like geometry. The fancier looking platonic solids like dodecahedron and icosohedron have almost magical levels of symmetry built in to them making them both aesthetically pleasing complex shapes. The fact they even exist inspires philosophical and even spiritual thoughts. As far as I understand romans had some very impressive archetecture incorporating mathematical ratios almost constantly, archetects and metal workers may very well have needed to worship geometry as a divine aspect in order to achieve such neurotic levels of mathematics in their aesthetic.
It's a cat toy. They didn't have laser pointers back then.
YouTube: ALIeNs ToLd RoMaNs AbOuT ViRuSeS!!
I'm thinking coin sorter. You start by sorting the smallest coins through the littlest holes, and work your way up.
I'm a knitter, and making gloves with it just doesn't compute for me. It's too clumsy, with too many extra steps. They'd be making gloves from fabric or leather.
I think you can bring it to Master Rahool for a piece of exotic gear.
The thingamabob needs no description