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Roman Dodecahedron

Ron Swanson said:
Excellent!! This spring I am expecting some cash, and a 3D printer will fit even in my tiny apartment.
If I go ahead I'll remember this thread!! AND find a 3D printer thread I'm sure is here somewhere. :)
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I had a quick go, there were a couple of models with hinged faces and pegs so they print almost flat, but I was after a quick print so I took a one piece solid model, chopped it in half, printed both sides and glued them together, definitely the way to go for an easy print. I'm afraid the photo isn't great because it's black filament. (Well they claim it's black but really it's really, really, really, really dark blue. The bastards get you every time!)

WIN_20251222_17_23_03_Pro-RESlZE.jpg
 
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P.J. Denyer said:
I had a quick go, there were a couple of models with hinged faces and pegs so they print almost flat, but I was after a quick print so I took a one piece solid model, chopped it in half, printed both sides and glued them together, definitely the way to go for an easy print. I'm afraid the photo isn't great because it's black filament. (Well they claim it's black but really it's really, really, really, really dark blue. The bastards get you every time!)

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You need to use thread from priests’ socks:
“… priest's socks are blacker than any other socks… laypeople often wear socks that appear black, but upon closer inspection, they are merely "very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue".
 
Honestly, it looks like a personal memento thing, like one of those plastic photo cubes we use today. The faces look like they could easily accommodate small hexagonal portraits or pictures or even semi-precious stones cut and glued in place. They could also be zodiac signs, or some form of monthly calendar by pictures. The sizes of the holes don't matter - they would not be seen. The shape could then be turned over to display any of them as required. The knobby legs keep the pictures off the dirty tables or benches where this would usually sit.
 
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Norman Alexander said:
Honestly, it looks like a personal memento thing, like one of those plastic photo cubes we use today. The faces look like they could easily accommodate small hexagonal pentagonal portraits or pictures or even semi-precious stones cut and glued in place. They could also be zodiac signs, or some form of monthly calendar by pictures. The sizes of the holes don't matter - they would not be seen. The shape could then be turned over to display any of them as required. The knobby legs keep the pictures off the dirty tables or benches where this would usually sit.
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FTFY

They obviously predicted the release of the Fujifilm Instax Mini in 1998.
 
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Norman Alexander said:
Honestly, it looks like a personal memento thing, like one of those plastic photo cubes we use today. The faces look like they could easily accommodate small hexagonal portraits or pictures or even semi-precious stones cut and glued in place. They could also be zodiac signs, or some form of monthly calendar by pictures. The sizes of the holes don't matter - they would not be seen. The shape could then be turned over to display any of them as required. The knobby legs keep the pictures off the dirty tables or benches where this would usually sit.
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What would be the point of each hole being a different size?
 
P.J. Denyer said:
They're not flat, there are embossed rings around the holes.
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The face pieces might have had corresponding circular grooves, e.g. circles carved in the back of a precious stone. Ditto for a wooden miniature painting. Or with brass mounting. It would allow the piece to be fixed more accurately in position, and provide more glue area. It would be easy to imagine a bunch of circular sprecious tones like those below, with brass mounts, being attached to this object. 1766570783414.jpeg
 
Andy_Ross said:
Why wouldn't they mount the gems directly on to the piece?
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They may have.
Andy_Ross said:
Grasping a bit to think not a single stone or mount or even a remnant has never been found.
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How do we know that? And it doesn't preclude other materials or purposes. Nor do the pieces have to be pentagonal. The thing might have just had numbers on each face, and was a 1-12 die.
 
Some of the dodecahedrons were found in previously undisturbed burials. It seems unlikely that a mere "frame" would be buried without the pictures or other valuables it was supposed to be holding.

Of course, if the dodecahedrons were holders for their owners' actual hit points, it would make sense for them to be empty when buried...
 
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Some have been found in coin hoards, also indicating they were valuable in themselves, but no reports of semi-precious stones found with them. Wikipedia mentions one found with a decayed bone item which could potentially have been a handle.

I recognise I'm pretty sloppy about documenting my work thoroughly enough but man, those Romano-Celts just didn't give a stuff.
 
theprestige said:
I was gonna suggest sex toys, but I'm pretty the Romans would have written about that.
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If not written, illustrated. It would be a hoot if the next excavation of a Pompeian fresco solved the mystery. But I must say that it's hard to imagine a very comfortable or exciting way to use it.

I've always assumed the balls are to give it stability as it sits on a table or whatever, as multi-sided dice roll easily. Maybe the problem is that people assumevthey have to be either useful or elegant, while ignoring fads on their own streets. Maybe it's just one of those things that for a while everyone had for no good reason, like a pet rock or a lava lamp or a garden gnome.
 
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