Hella unlikely they were used to knit gloves
It honestly kind of looks like a model of virus lol
I think you can bring it to Master Rahool for a piece of exotic gear.
It’s a rope junction, with the different holes for different knots and rope bundles, with the spokes serving as rope bend/end points. Presumably it would get weeded out as the places where it was employed either stopped making use of them, like perhaps the weather fabric roof shielding of the coliseum, or ended up using more specialized means, like for sailing.
I was going to say, this looks very similar to knitting circles that are available today (I use them all the time). Those knobs and holes make me immediately think that this is used for fibre or knot work of some kind. Rope seems understandable, but I can’t tell from the picture if that is made from metal or clay. No issues if it was metal, but I would figure that clay wouldn’t hold up to the rope pulling and pressing against it in any intensive application.
I am curious as to why OP decided this is unlikely to be used for “knitting gloves”. The Romans may not have practiced knitting as we understand it now since that came about in the middle ages, but knitting isn’t the only form of knotwork that can produce cloth.
I like how archeologists never come to the conclusion that something could just be an art trend.
Everything has to have a useful purpose even though we all own stuff with no actual purpose.
They do come to that conclusion all the time, but in some cases it’s impossible to know for sure. If they don’t know for sure then they’re not going to say it’s definitely for decoration only, but they’ll list it as an option, which they have done for this object.
The default bucket that archeologists throw stuff into if they really don’t know is “religious object”.
It’s obviously a symbol of power!
The wiki on this specific object briefly mentions it may have been for decoration
I know what its for but i’m not going to tell you guys
YouTube: ALIeNs ToLd RoMaNs AbOuT ViRuSeS!!
Until I looked at the comments here I thought this was the little box thingy that Shadowheart had in BG3.
Archeologists when we’re ancient:
“Wtf is these?”
“I dunno but I bet my mum could knit a glove with it”
Rule number 1 of archaeology: if you don’t know what it is, then it’s religious.
Btw my favorite theory is that they are some kind of dice for a game. The little nubbins on the corners would help them bounce around better.
Just like my code. It’s obvious what it does and doesn’t need documentation… until I try to understand it 2 years later.
i saw someone suggest it was for hanging torches and i desperately want to know what the fuck the inside of their mind looks like, and what they think a torch is
EDC torches with long-lasting paraffin and burnished-bronze keychain now on sale at Amazonicus. Buy now and get a credit-card-sized folding pitchfork half price, to always have in your pocket for those unexpected occasions.
What is this ‘Credit Card’ you speak of?
I saw that post and it sort of made sense to me. Put the handle in the hole, stands upright. Another person comes along, rotates the torch to an angle and puts the handle of their torch in another hole to balance the weight of the two torches. Same with a third of needed, I think it could work if the device is big enough.
yeah that still doesn’t make sense to me, the only way i see it working is if you have a single torch placed in a face so it’s all upwards.
and why would you design something so strange to hold torches? imagine coming to someone’s house and their light switches are pipe valves in a closet you have to turn to dim the lights throughout the house, wack
if you want to hold multiple torches you can just have multiple sconces
Unlikely why?
Here’s a video of it being used for that: https://youtu.be/76AvV601yJ0?si=kvdh4ZLiBCmyldPN
I have seen people argue that "they are pretty intricate and expensive things to use only for the purposes of knitting gloves. ". To them, I would like to submit my wife’s $1100 sewing machine that definitely gets used, and isn’t just some weird status symbol among creative types.
Just because you could use it for knitting it doesn’t mean it was its purpose.
There’s not a lot of detail, but you can check on the Wiki why it’s ultimately an unlikely explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron#Purpose
honestly the obvious answer to me is that it’s just a decoration, it just looks like something you’d put on a shelf to fill space
