A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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What a wonderful rabbit hole to go down. My takeaways are it could possibly be used for knitting, but traditional spool knitting that the Grandma uses in the video doesn't show up in history until the 1500s. If the Romans did use it for gloves then knitting has been around much longer than we have evidence of or they were using a different method with the dodecahedron.
I think I also read these were usually found with treasures and with minimal or no wear, so there isn’t any evidence they were used for anything.
The best suggested explanation IMO is that it’s a way for blacksmiths to demonstrate their skill.
“lol stupid scientists don’t know what knitting is” I would file under “actively anti-intellectual”.
So it's the ancient Roman blacksmith's version of Benchy. Got it
Kinda like the little nib on top of old saw blades. It doesn't really do anything, but if they can make that complex little nib, then they can probably make pretty decent sawblades too.
I've always heard that the nib was meant to help you gauge when to stop your pull stroke and start your push stroke so that you use the whole saw and don't wear the teeth unevenly. Is this not the case?
Iirc it was only found in northern areas. Can't see demonstrations of skill being only there.
Maybe the ones elsewhere were too busy being productive.
Except that's probably not what they're for, I saw a video recently (I think it was this one) that went into detail about the reasons why it doesn't make much sense for these to be a knitting tool.
There's a lesson here about the differences between history and a good historical narrative, but that's the lesson of most history and no one ever listens to it.
There’s a lesson here about the differences between history and a good historical narrative, but that’s the lesson of most history and no one ever listens to it.
There’s a lesson here about the differences between history and a good historical narrative, but that’s the lesson of most history and no one ever listens to it.
I don't think there's a lesson here.
First and foremost: knitting wasn’t invented until centuries later and didn’t appear in Europe until about the 14th century.
I hope this is the next episode of hardcore history. I could use 30 hours of Dan Carlin context on knitting...
maybe its for measuring how much pasta you need to boil
how much pasta you need to knit a toga or some shit
Maybe it is a knitting-pastaing-horsing multitool
That's a d12. Clearly, the Romans were using it to play D&D.
I cast fear on Julius Caesar!
Uh oh, Julius Ceasar's only path is through most of the members of Senate. Each member gets one attack of opportunity.
Go ahead and roll 23 dodecahedrons for hits! Brutus also gets advantage for backstab.
Last time one of these threads popped up, I saw someone suggest that it might have been a holder for some of those bottles with pointed bottoms the Romans had, don't remember the name. I'm not sure if this is a hypothesis with any level of acceptance, but it feels like it could be plausible just from looking at the thing, having different sized holes would allow different sizes of bottle to fit, and you'd want feet for each possible side that it could be resting on, which would explain the prongs.
These devices are rather small and most amphora seem to be much larger. The shape of amphora helped with shipping, so they were typucally larger than a device that can fit in your hand.
I'm not sure if this is a hypothesis with any level of acceptance
Unless an actual record is found describing what they were used for, it's all just guesses anyway.
Future archeologist: What do you think they used those things for?
My point is, maybe it was just art, fun, deko?
Future archeologists: we believe these were to provide a form of transportation for their miniature gods, as the large humans honored the devices with novel patterns.
Reality:
Spinny boi
My mother got really interested in these things a while ago. I think she mostly buys into the glove-knitting theory. Whatever the case, I 3D printed her a model of one and it's sitting on the mantle over her fireplace.
Archaeologists in 2000 years will be puzzled again. "Plastic dodecahedra found near broken mantelpieces, what could it be used for? Anyway I made one out of technetium for my grandma"
"It was probably either religious in nature, or used for deciding when to put seeds in the ground"
"Many same-sex friends had these. We believe it was a sign to show they were just roommates"
possibly used to start the primal source of heat called fire
I 3D printed her a model of one and it's sitting on the mantle over her fireplace.
That kinda hints to it not being very useful then...
It's a girth measurer.
By the looks of it, the Romans were size queens and kings. The frescos and mosaics of Pompeii support that theory.
Grandma knows how to use it.
Grandma's are the best
Grandma is are indeed
Grandma has are the best, surely.
Possible Ritual Use™ 😸
Love these, though I'll never remember the name or how to write it ...
To me it looks like something you'd use to easily make a Monkey Fist for throwing line to/from a pier. Though I guess that doesn't make much sense appearing in mountainous regions, unless they were made in the mountains (proximity to ore?)
It's a ghastly that ran out of gas.