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[–] 142 points 2 years ago (9 children)

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.

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  • [–] 88 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 94 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    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”.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    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?

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  • [–] 105 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 60 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 48 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    First and foremost: knitting wasn’t invented until centuries later and didn’t appear in Europe until about the 14th century.

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    [–] 69 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    maybe its for measuring how much pasta you need to boil

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  • [–] 69 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    That's a d12. Clearly, the Romans were using it to play D&D.

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  • [–] 38 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    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.

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    Future archeologist: What do you think they used those things for?

    My point is, maybe it was just art, fun, deko?

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 43 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    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"

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You put fossils in them dude

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    [–] 9 points 2 years ago
    [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Possible Ritual Use™ 😸

    Love these, though I'll never remember the name or how to write it ...

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  • [+] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
    [–] 3 points 2 years ago
    [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    It's a ghastly that ran out of gas.

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