Hired.
STEVE?
In 1000 years people will find a land fill with fidget spinners and wonder the same.
In fact, my hypothesis (it’s mine, you can’t have it) is that the Roman empire fell due to everybody being constantly distressed and distracted because they kept losing their fidget dodecahedrons all over Europe.
Or they will immediately start fidgeting with them and inadvertently understand.
Which now leads me to believe these relics are merely copies of earlier relics that were copied from relics even earlier. Created only to be recreated as the echo of human curiosity.
The big bang was god dropping his dodecahedron fidget spinner
My preferred theory is that it identifies the bearer as belonging to a group something like a smithies guild.
If there was a practical function someone would have figured it out. It’s a lame candle holder, coin counter, and glove knitting template. It’s function is symbolic.
It was hard to make, and the materials were costly.
It has specific features that can be described like “it has 12 flat faces with holes” but would be difficult to construct if you had never seen one.
They have often been found with caches of coins, but often found alone as though forgotten or discarded. They had value to some people but they were not treasure.
I really like the “you cant actually make one from a description” angle. That actually makes a lot of sense. Like, you couldn’t even make it from memory, you’d have to copy it.
In 1000 years if they discovered Newton’s Cradles, they’d be similarly baffled on their functional use case. My theory is that it’s just a cool decoration thing
Grok said it’s a weapon, so we can eliminate that one.
Yeah, let’s eliminate Grok.
Almost anything is a weapon if you try.
Pocket dodecahedron!
There are far, far more things that cannot be a weapon than can be.
For instance, a single grain of sand.
With enough velocity it will still kill you.
Also gather more and heat them up.
“They built copper and iron shields, put sand into them, and heated them over hot fire so the sand became red-hot. By means of some mechanism they threw this sand at those who had fought bravest… The sand penetrated through the armour into the shirts, burned the body, and it could not be helped… they died, going mad with horrible pain, in sufferings piteous and unquenchable.”
a single grain of sand.
In space, accelerated to sufficient relative velocity, that’s more than adequate as a weapon.
Iirc that’s actually the premise of how a lot of guns in Mass Effect work. A mass effect field is induced with Element Zero (unobtanium plot device) which allows you to alter the apparent mass of things inside the field and then, using essentially a grain of sand shaved off a block as a projectile, said projectile is accelerated to relativistic speeds in place of a bullet.
Also, is it in my pocket?
Sha-sha!
It’s the most likely use, IMO. They could be mace heads intended for personal protection. The different holes would be to accommodate different handle diameters, making it easy to swap to another handle if it breaks.
The Roman Plumbus.
You know what got me when I was visiting China was that “Royals/Nobel” collected thin disks of jade as a sign of their wealth/influence/skilled tradesmen/maybe spiritual.
The theory’s are all over the place, I believe it was a status symbol.
https://www.numisforums.com/topic/4842-the-mysterious-jade-discs-of-china/
I think ancient cultures had hypes just like we do now. Old Chinese Jade Labubu
Turns out the Greeks invented D&D, and the Romans just copied them with their own Pathfinder style take on their gods and heroes. The dodecahedrons? Obviously part of their game.
Roman Dodecahedrons - my favored theory was that they were used to make wool gloves. Indeed, when I looked into it, someone had done this. AFAIK, cool as they are, and as many of them as have been found, no one really knows what purpose they served.
Nah the knitting / weaving idea doesn’t add up.
Basically, they can be used to weave a tube, but that isn’t really evidence that they were created with that intention.
The bronze would be polished up around the knobs if it were used that way.
You wouldn’t use bronze to make a weaving tool just because it’s so expensive. Maybe as a once off or special item, but not generally.
You don’t vary the size of your knitting or weaving by using a bigger template / more loose weave. One larger finger you would use more stitches: that’s fundamental to knitting and weaving.
At first glance it’s a nice idea but it doesn’t withstand critical thought.
I think it’s pretty obvious they’re for playing Tullianums et Dracones. Probably editio III since it had the most d10 use.
There is no evidence of knitting in the Roman Empire, which if it was there is weird when you consider how much art they made that shows other parts of their daily lives and how many deities they had for every aspect of life.
The solid ones would also be completely useless for knitting gloves. And why are these typically found in hoards of money if they’re a part of domestic life? It just doesn’t fit the available evidence. I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but it doesn’t work to explain all of them.
Apperently the holes are important for the knitting, but there are some dodecahedrons without holes.
These were clearly used for fossil crafting.
I had to Delve too deep for this response
100 internet points, but I can’t give them. Gloves.
Thank you for the “100 internet points”, I can’t imagine what I’ll use them for, or when. :-D
Hey pal, youre in the wrong part of town. We’ll overlook it just this once… For 100 internet points or ya life.
flicks knife out real cool like
That’s not a knife, this (pulls 168cm Da Dao from behind my left shoulder), this Is a knife.
Smithing test, so your title is potentially accurate
Where can I learn to talk/type like this?
You dont learn autism my friend.
I’m pretty sure you can on tiktok.
Im definitely on the spectrum but maybe theres another tool out there for me
