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WonderUnsolved artefact fact

Roman dodecahedra are small, hollow bronze objects with twelve five-sided faces, a round hole in each face and a knob at every corner. About 130 are known, yet no ancient text says what they were for.

Roman dodecahedron

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The story behind the card

The first was recorded in England in 1739. Since then about 130 have turned up in Britain, France, Germany, the Low Countries, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary, but none in Italy, the heart of the empire. They measure 4 to 11 centimetres across, were cast mostly in Gaul between the second and fourth centuries AD, and the holes in one object usually differ in size. Few show signs of wear, and none carries letters or numbers. More than fifty explanations have been published: a surveying instrument, a tool for knitting gloves, a gauge for checking coins, a fortune-telling device, a metalworker's showpiece. In 2023 amateur archaeologists at Norton Disney in Lincolnshire found an unusually well-preserved example, but it did not settle the question.

Türkçe oku
Roma dodekahedronları, on iki beşgen yüzlü, içi boş küçük bronz nesnelerdir; her yüzde yuvarlak bir delik, her köşede küçük bir topuz bulunur. Yaklaşık 130 örnek bilinse de hiçbir antik metin ne işe yaradıklarını söylemez.

İlk örnek 1739'da İngiltere'de kayda geçti. O günden bu yana Britanya, Fransa, Almanya, Benelüks ülkeleri, İsviçre, Avusturya ve Macaristan'da 130 kadar örnek bulundu; imparatorluğun kalbi İtalya'da ise tek bir tane bile çıkmadı. Boyları 4 ile 11 santimetre arasında değişir; çoğu MS 2. ile 4. yüzyıllar arasında Galya'da dökülmüştür ve aynı nesnedeki delikler genellikle farklı büyüklüktedir. Pek azında kullanım izi var, hiçbirinde de harf ya da rakam yok. Ne işe yaradıklarına dair elliden fazla açıklama yayımlandı: arazi ölçüm aleti, eldiven örme aracı, sikkelerin kırpılıp kırpılmadığını anlamaya yarayan bir ölçü, fal aracı ya da bir ustanın becerisini göstermek için yaptığı bir parça. 2023'te Lincolnshire'daki Norton Disney köyünde amatör arkeologlar olağanüstü iyi korunmuş bir örnek buldu, ama bu da soruyu çözmedi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Roman dodecahedron
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