this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Obviously it's a key that needs to be inserted into an ancient titan robot to power it back up.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 hours ago

Looks like a bigass thundercube to me. Don't wanna fiddle with them too much, they might get krangled.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 13 hours ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 13 hours ago (7 children)

knitting what? the ones that have been recovered were way too big to make sense for that purpose

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago (8 children)

Socks rarely last a year, fabrics existed in Rome, it's like not knowing if 2 + 2 equals 2 because there aren't any historical examples of people putting two and two together until the xth century AD.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

And they don't show signs of wear and tear that using them for such a purpose would create, either.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe oversized sweaters were a thing back then

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Gotta keep the giants and dragons warm

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago

God-sized sweaters and socks to offer at the sermons in temples

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 13 hours ago (5 children)

Are we entirely sure it's not just an ornament? I've got all kinds of things that aren't even ritual objects.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

No, no you don't. Everything that isn't fully functional and necessary for life is a ritual object! And also some of the the other things to! It's all ritual! It's ritual all the way down, baby!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

So you’re saying I’m a ritual object? Huh, go figure.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Have you ever been inserted or had something inserted?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

I have been ejected. Does that count?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

it's an oil lamp.

use discs with or without holes to adjust brightness.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago

It’s obviously a dick-measuring tool

[–] [email protected] 12 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I thought it was a dowel sizing tool for standardized construction.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Here's my contribution to the 'what the fuck are these things' guesses:

Its a customizable, weighted D12.

You stick the coins into the slots, then do some kind of gambling involving dice rolls.

Part of the game is that as coins are added or removed, the weighting changes.

Hell, it could be that you take turns tossing the thing till its full of coins, thrower has to fill the hollow upward facing hole, as a way of anteing up, then just toss it again untill its empty, thrower takes out the upward facing coin, everyone takes a drink when it lands with a hollow slot face up.

The educated, literate people probably wouldn't bother to write down the exact details of a low class gambling game, when literacy is rare and scrolls/books are expensive.

The things have reportedly often been found in cabinets and drawers alongside coins.

They vary in size... maybe some of the rather large ones could be commissioned as not a practical gambling die, but as an exxageratedly large one, as a trophy or ornament, like modern mall ninja swords or funko pops or something.

Possibly they could also serve a practical purpose for normal people and coin minters to check that their coins are properly sized.

Any... Roman numismatists here that can sanity check this, in terms of coin sizes?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The educated, literate people probably wouldn’t bother to write down the exact details of a low class gambling game, when literacy is rare and scrolls/books are expensive.

Interesting enough, the Roman Emperor Claudius, who was an enthusiastic dicer, wrote a book on gaming/gambling. It's been lost to time, unfortunately.

Literacy is a funny question in regards to the Roman Empire, as is the price of scrolls/books. There's limited evidence that scrolls and books were actually cheaper in the Roman Empire than in the 15th century AD, just before and in-the-early-days-of moveable type, and that urban literacy was fairly widespread. The big problem is that the vast majority of ancient writing simply has not survived the ages.

I'm not well-informed about the dodecahedrons or the theories surrounding them, but I'm inclined to find your explanation, while interesting, probably a bit too complex. Especially considering that coins were often slightly irregular in shape, as the mass-produced neat, perfect circles that we're used to are a result of modern milled coinage

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

Ah well, worth a shot.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)
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