• @CatoblepasEnglish
    98•10 months ago

    This is a bad explanation of the dodecahedrons for several reasons:

    • Where the dodecahedrons are typically found - not broken or heavily worn in waste piles as you would expect if this was an everyday object used for practical purposes, but with money and other expensive objects. They also rarely have any signs of wear.

    • The size of the dodecahedrons isn’t suited for making anything large enough for an adult, which seems kind of useless if it’s meant to be a knitting tool.

    • Some of the dodecahedrons have no holes and can’t be used for knitting.

    • Knitting did not exist for almost 1000 years after these dodecahedrons were made. Knitting is a technology that hasn’t existed throughout all of human history.

    I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, it’s just important to note that we still don’t know what these objects were for.

    Edit: I have also never known any historian that wouldn’t immediately launch into way more detail than anyone outside the field cares about at the drop of a hat, haha.

    • @m_f@midwest.socialEnglish
      18•10 months ago

      Here’s a recent HN thread about the objects: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35937540

      Metalworker status symbol seems compelling, as it explains several facts about them, and the knitting angle could be a chicken vs egg situation. Either knitters found an existing and relatively common object to be useful for their needs, or knitting is older than we think and the need for these tools drove metalworkers to decide that a hard-to-make tool was a good status symbol. Or maybe it’s both/and, with both needs influencing each other. I can easily imagine some metalworking culture deciding that this hard-to-make tool is a good status symbol, and they eventually turn it into something that’s not actually useful for the original purpose, but works great to show off.

    • @ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11•10 months ago

      anthropologist explanations

      My favorite anthropology thing is when they dig up a statue with wide hips and large breasts and refer to it as something related to a “cult of fertility”. I guess that sounds a lot better than “porn”.

    • @ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4•10 months ago

      I wish the video in this article had better shots of people actually wearing the hairstyles, compared with the statues.

  • teftEnglish
    20•10 months ago

    Many hypotheses have been put forth as to what they are used for but most archaeologist don’t think it was used for gloves.

    But most archaeologists think the objects were probably used in magical rituals. The dodecahedrons have no markings indicating how they were used, as might be expected for measuring instruments, and they all have different weights and sizes, ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 inches (4 to 11 centimeters) across.

    This article is from this year. The youtube video is from 2014.

    https://www.livescience.com/roman-dodecahedron-discovered-belgium

    • Jaytreeman
      1•10 months ago

      Despite it looking exactly like an axe preferred for bushcraft. Like a guy was especially good at building homes and was recognized for it in death.