Ancient Romans be like: "haha, they don't know how to use the three dodecahedrons."
News
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
For those that don't know
Step 1: roll up a half orc barbarian
Step 2: wield a great axe
Step 3: roll a natural 20 on an attack
Now you use the three dodecahedrons!
If it came down to figuring out the three dodecahedrons or using the communal sponge on a stick, I'd take the risk with the dodecahedrons.
may have been used for ritualistic or religious purposes
Aka they have no fuckin clue what it's for as that's what they always say when they have no fuckin clue what something's for.
Kinda annoying that that's the first go to when not having a fuckin clue what something's for.
You need to read Motel of the Mysteries. Here's the premise:
It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.
Well it's probably not for making cakes.
Pure speculation
It’s for unlocking the Stargate.
A new hand touches the beacon!
I still think they're a test/show of skill for blacksmiths
they've been found in coin hordes and the like... they were definitely more valuable than that
An item that only the absolute best blacksmiths or metalworkers could make.
Sounds valuable.
As an apprentice blacksmith, yeah. I would have difficulty attempting to make that thing out of bronze, and would definitely learn more about smithing than I do now, just making the thing.
You could try making one as your next project?
But why were they only in northern areas?
Wouldn’t they melt them down to make something more useful once it was complete and their skills proven?
If the craftsmanship theory is correct they would probably put them on display to advertise their business.
Machinists will often have a tuner's cube on their desk. It does have a bit of the same feel.
So this is what that one meme was about.
because it has 12 sides, the dodecahedron was associated with the zodiac.. some mystics thought it represented the physical realm.. it's a perfect 3 dimensional shape if you care about the Golden Mean..
I feel like this is just some kind of fidget spinner of ancient times. They must've had fads like that too.
I thought these were for knitting? Has that been disproven or was I trolled?
It just hasn't been proven. Its a fun hypothesis but it could be fucking anything.
Ah, thanks for that. I was beginning to think that I imagined it.
They used to stuff those things full of peanut butter and dog treats then put it in the freezer for a few hours. It kept their golden retrievers busy for a while.
✋ Aliens ✋
It’s clearly a cockring.
For a biblically accurate cock
the village of Norton Disney
Is that where they're building the new theme park?
We have random doodads and thingamabobs that someone made specifically for people to buy and just keep on a shelf for decoration; why can't that be true of ancient things like these? They certainly look like some random knick knack that would sit on a desk and serve no other purpose.
Ritual purposes
Oh so no idea what they were for, got it. I can't believe news orgs still seem not to have caught on about "ritual" artifacts...
Maybe the romans just played a lot of barbarian characters?
I hate to break it to you, but ritual and religion have been a thing forever.
Walk into most homes today, and you'll find a bunch of ritual objects. Crosses, Rosary Beads, Menorahs, and dozens of other every day objects that you'd never think twice about.
The ancient world had even more such objects.
A fun example that I can think of off the top of my head is the demon trapping bowl. It was common in parts of the Middle East, and how it worked is you'd write a bunch of incantations on the inside of the bowl in a spiral down to the center, and then bury it upside down under the main entrance to your home.
That's clearly a ritual object. It serves no other purpose.
These dodecahedra might be the same. After all, there are 12 zodiac and playing with the meaning of the zodiac was quite popular in the Roman world at various times.
By the late empire, if you were playing a legion campaign it was pretty standard to run 30-40% barbarians.
Some theories are that they functioned as measuring devices, calendars, ornamental scepter toppers, weapons or tools.
Early D&D dice?
The Romans had dice that would roll better.
They seem to have favored d20 and d6, but other dice have also been found.
But I would bring my own to a Roman game of D&D, because the Romans also tended to use lopsided dice (They believed in fate rather than luck, so hand waved away loaded dice)
Ancient Roman personal massager with built in fleshlight.
They accidentally the whole thing.
Not a penis-haver, but wouldn't that be too small?
Weren’t they for making gloves?
The knitting technique required to make gloves with that weren't invented until the 15th or 16th century. And no examples of knit gloves older than that have ever been found.
Also, many of these dodecahedrons don't have hollow centers, which is absolutely required for knitting with them.
One of many theories.
Someone was playing as a berserker.
Ah my favorite shape!
if some of them are solid then i'd guess the function is in the knobs. maybe a massage ball? or a hot plate stand? or maybe the knobs are hooks for attaching dangles from?
With a solid 15 minute youtube video under my belt I'm in camp glove.
That Roman dungeon master must be pissed about losing his dice..