A mysterious Roman object unearthed in an amateur dig has baffled experts as it goes on display in Britain for the first time.
The 12-sided object was discovered in Norton Disney, near Lincoln, in 2023, and will go on display at Lincoln Museum as part of the city’s Festival of History.
Richard Parker, secretary of the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group, said it was a “privilege to have handled” the dodecahedron, but was still at a loss over what it was.
So this leads me to another “might be” kind of answer.
A weight to heave lines
I know that monkey fist and similar other knots to help casting a line to a dock or whatever als frequently have weights in them, the nubs and holes could help keep it from getting lost.
It’s a good theory, but they are found all over the place and not necessarily close to water.
Just spitballing on my part. I’m not sure what the context of the find is. I’d assume if it for knitting it’d be found near other tools for yarn craft. (distaffs, drop spindles, or whatever they used. and the, uh, yarns.)
I’d assume if it was for tent poles, it’d be found stored near tents, Similarly, if it was for casting lines… it’d be near ropes- though rope would have needed to be tossed for a variety of tasks beyond purely naval interests.
another potential is as some sort of lampshade for a candle/oil lamp. Though that’d probably be pretty self-evident, with soot and all.
A candle holder has been one of the possibilities suggested because a couple of them were found with wax inside, but some of them don’t have any holes at all. They aren’t all uniform in size, some have holes, some don’t. Some have knobs, some don’t. The only thing they all seem to have in common is that they’re dodecahedrons.
well, that complicates things.
Are we sure they’re just not messing with us?
That’s my other guess. It was an ancient plot to confound future archaeologists.
4th century welding test
“I call it: the Roommates”