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

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.

Twinkletoes ,

Ancient Roman fidget spinner

desmosthenes ,
@desmosthenes@lemmy.world avatar

pft… it’s for delve fossil crafting ^*

https://maxroll.gg/poe/crafting/fossils-resonators

RickRussell_CA ,
@RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world avatar

Those external nubs strongly suggest something that was used for winding fiber or knitting. Storing thread for sewing? Some kind of frame for a popular knitting pattern?

Pronell ,

There have been several other articles about these in the past few weeks.

One of the most common suggestions is exactly that, used for knitting fingers for gloves.

Another I saw that made sense was for securing tent poles, with the nubs being used to secure the canvas to the ground.

SpaceNoodle ,

The tent pole thing makes no sense.

casmael ,

Yeah I can’t really visualise that one tbh

phdepressed ,

Don't imagine it as a peg but like a thing to help knot around and hold a (small) rope in place.

But I think the sewing use is more likely.

Pronell ,

Fair enough, I was just passing on what I'd read.

TheChurn ,

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.

SpudNoodle ,
@SpudNoodle@kbin.social avatar

Knitting is generally accepted to have been invented in Egypt around the Millennium, with the first clearly knit object (intricate colorwork socks) dated to around 1100 CE. Roman artifacts from 2-4th centuries would not be “knitting” tools, since knitting as we know it didn’t exist yet. Nalbinding predates knitting, but requires a flat needle with an eye which is fully passed through each loop, so this tool is still not related. It could be some kind of weaving/textile tool, but those knobs don’t actually look that easy to work with. I would expect some kind of taper to facilitate passing threads/yarns over the tip if that were the case. My opinion: it’s a coincidence that it just happens to look like the “knitting looms” at the hobby store.

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