According to the good folk at Mental Floss, the first such object, an example of which is pictured below, was found in the 1730s in an English field, alongside some Roman coins.
Since then quite a few have been found along the northwestern side of the old Roman Empire, running from Hungary to England. They're all different sizes, but they share the obvious features: They're all 12-sided, each side with a different-sized hole in it and at each corner is a small knob. And no one knows what they are. Possible suggestions of military use, a piece in a game, religious significance and so on each have something to recommend them, but each also falls short in one area or another.
It seems impossible that something so ubiquitous in one area of the Empire would have absolutely no mention in any surviving written record that would tell us what it's good for. On the other hand, Twitter's everywhere these days and no one can say what it's good for either, so maybe we're a little bit like the Romans in a couple of ways.
(ETA: clarified that the pic is of a more recently discovered dodecahedron and not the first one found)
2 comments:
there was a short-lived hypothesis that it was something like a knitting spool/knitting Nancy for making lengths of cord. I think someone even tried 3-D printing a version and trying it. I don't think it worked very well....
I wonder if they were some kind of toy or part of a gambling game.
The story at the link mentions that one too, but says what you did about how it didn't work very well.
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