More than 100 similarly designed copper-alloy twelve-faced artifacts dated to the second through fourth centuries have been discovered across northern Europe, with the first find in 1739 and the most recent two years ago. The objects feature knobbed corners, occasional surface designs, and complex construction that implies skilled metalworking. No examples have been found in Rome or elsewhere in Italy. Proposed functions include professional examination pieces, military rangefinders, sundial calendars, decoders, measuring tools, coin validators, ritual amulets, fidget objects, and aids for chain-making techniques such as Viking knitting.
Thus far, well over 100 similarly designed copper-alloy second-to-fourth-century artifacts labeled "Roman dodecahedra" have been discovered: the first was unearthed in 1739, and the most recent just two years ago. With their complex structure, knobbed corners, and (in some cases) surface designs, their construction would have required a skilled metalworker. Perhaps they were the result of professional examination, premised on the idea that a man who can make a proper dodecahedron can make anything.
That's one theory, if only one of many. In the video above, Joe Scott goes over a variety of them, explaining why amateurs and experts alike have proposed that the Roman dodecahedron was everything from a military rangefinder to a sundial calendar to a decoder to a measuring device to a coin validator to a ritualistic amulet to a "Roman fidget spinner."
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