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[–] 132 points 11 months ago (10 children)

It is a Roman dodecahedron, several of which have been found in Europe. The purpose of it is unknown, though there are many theories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron

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  • [–] 55 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Look, Romans had historians, sort of. They knew about ancient (to them) civilizations, and the mysterious artifacts they had left behind. They also had the equivalent of modern billionaires. And they even had a sense of humour (a bit rude, maybe, judging by the graffiti in Pompeii, but a sense of humour nonetheless).

    What they did not have, however, was the vast variety of entertainment we have today, so they probably got bored.

    Now, imagine an extremely wealthy, extremely bored Roman, who's been reading about the mysterious hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, and been wondering about what the people of future millennia will say about Rome... and in his boredom he comes up with the perfect, most funny way to prank them.

    So he seeks a good engineer and has him come up with something somewhat complex yet easy to mass produce, that will withstand the ravages of time, and which looks like it must have had a purpose, yet is actually completely useless. Then he takes the design to several metalsmiths and pays them to make a few thousand of the things, and pays a few dozen men to travel the empire dropping the things in inconspicuous places where no one will notice them for centuries, and spends the rest of his life amusing himself thinking about the theories future historians might come up with to explain the damn things.

    That is what I believe Roman dodecahedrons must have been for.

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  • [–] 20 points 11 months ago

    That's a nice theory but the dodecahedron was found in across a wide region of the western side of the empire and primarily in military graves. There's also the rarer icosahedron which didn't have large holes on the sides which really jumbles up theories. I'll give some interesting ideas for it's use I've heard.

    Cryptography, when combined with a disc-like key it could be used like "move clockwise after every word" like this guy speculate https://youtu.be/vBDgmE3d0aw. Notable issue with this is that it's waaaay more complex to manufacture than required. You could make the first key with a hexagonal hole and the second key that slots into it. No dodecahedron required.

    Craftsman proof of expertise, since it's very hard to manufacture it can be used as a proof you can make it. But then why was it found a lot in military graves?

    Artillery calibration, by using the holes you could put down rocks at 200m, 300m and 400m marks and see which rocks fits exactly inside inside the view when the two holes line up in size. Hard to prove and there's no need to have such an extensive number of knobs on it to fulfill that purpose. Could save a lot of expensive metal by having it made of wood for example.

    Knitting fingers, it's not very convenient and suuuper expensive for its purpose.

    Weaved metal, more plausible than knitting but if this was the case we would see scratches or signs of use along the holes.

    Religious artifact or recreation, this is the archaeological "we don't have anything better" explanation. Can be used as a fancy dice or for asking the gods or something. It only sounds plausible because we don't have anything better.

    This is why it's still a mystery even though so many people have guessed, the knobs on every corner, difficulty to manufacture, cost, varying hole sizes and that it's found in military graves is very hard to put together. It's looking like we're going to need to find a non-existing manual for it's use.

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  • [–] 20 points 11 months ago

    I know an old geologist who has a peculiar hobby to amuse himself. He takes big rocks from somewhere they naturally occur, and transports them to remote areas where they have no business being. His idea is 100% to confuse future geologists.

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  • [+] 13 points 11 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

    Some have no holes. Seems pretty inconvenient to use as a loom that way. Some were too small for knitting.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    I just learned the other day that "Roman dodecahedron" is a bit of a misnomer: They're mostly from Britain and Gaul, and none have ever been found in Italy. So Celtic or Romano-Celtic would be more accurate descriptors.

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  • [–] 94 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Lol this guy doesn't know what the dodecahedron is for. Get a load of this!

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  • [–] 82 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Oh its something with a use so obvious we need not even write down its name or mention it.

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  • [–] 30 points 11 months ago

    Why, that's the Dodecaholedron.

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago

    Crocheting gloves for rancors.

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  • [–] 20 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    That's just SCP-184, in a galaxy far far away the people discovered how to neutralize its anomalous properties

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Oh that's some good ass lore right there. Love how it builds up this image of the danger of the object but never divulges what could actually happen if interacting with it in the wrong way.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Most of the SCP are this way. If you want to go deeper, some of my favorites include:

    Going into SCP is a good way to spend an afternoon or two, there are really talented writers out there

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    God I love SCP so much. Probably why I loved Control so much, it was like playing SCP: The Game or something.

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  • I mean, SCP was literally the inspiration for Control. Like the game designers straight up said that SCP was their primary inspiration, and they skirted as close to it as possible while still maintaining enough uniqueness to avoid things like licensing issues. So yeah, it makes sense that you’d enjoy it if you like SCP.

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  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago

    It's the Horadic Dodecahedron

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago

    You put fossils in it to craft gear

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago

    It's a d12, used fairly rarely in DnD

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  • [–] 28 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    That’s what Voldemort used to hide the prime directive from Ra's al Ghul after Boromir tried to steal it from Optimus Prime at the Battle of New Caprica.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago

    My dog liked to roll his around and get treats out of it.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    p sure that's one of the bigass thundercubes, it's used for krangling.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    measuring the girth of your lightsaber

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    I haven't watched the show. Are the writers/set designers the kind of nerds to specifically not describe the use of an object based on an artifact that famously confuses archaeologists because it doesn't have a record suggesting its purpose?

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Why, you put fossils in there and are able to rub it with your wearables to modify their properties.

    Pretty simple.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Early holocron.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago

    Who’s lightsaber has the largest girth?

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