File:2018 Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Dodekaeder & Ikosaeder.jpg - Wikipedia
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Photo caption: "Two dodecahedra and an icosahedron on display in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Germany."

Roman dodecahedron

A Roman dodecahedron or Gallo-Roman dodecahedron is a small hollow object made of copper alloy which has been cast into a regular dodecahedral shape: twelve flat pentagonal faces, each face having a circular hole of varying diameter in the middle, the holes connecting to the hollow center. Roman dodecahedra date from the 2nd to 4th centuries AD and their purpose remains unknown. They rarely show signs of wear, and do not have any inscribed numbers or letters.

  • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    They were also found commonly in the Pyu states (Burma), Óc Eo (Southern Vietnam), Khao Sam Kaeo (Peninsular Thailand), and Hepu (Guangxi)

    https://journals.openedition.org/archeosciences/docannexe/image/2072/img-3.jpg
    https://journals.openedition.org/archeosciences/2072

    https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA398627717&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=0003598X&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=nysl_oweb&isGeoAuthType=true&aty=geo

    If they got there through Roman trade or cultural diffusion, it's interesting how they seemingly skipped over India and China. Peninsular Thailand is a very remote place!

    Also the ones from Rome come mostly from France, which is also interesting

    I drew a map of the SEA sites they're found in

    Show

    So it's definitely not a Silk Road trade route, and probably ended up there through Indian ocean trade routes. Yet, they somehow seem to be absent from India.

    It may also indicate that the majority of Rome's high-skill blacksmiths came from France. The wiki article states they may have been used as a "test" to display the skill of a blacksmith, which if true, would also mean they had no commercial purpose, and that their presence in SEA was the first time they were sold as items of value. The SEA ones also seem to be more commonly made of gold instead of bronze, which further supports this. The smallest ones in Europe were a small 1.6 inches in diameter, which further supports this, showing off one's metalworking intricacy.

    wild inductive theory is that some merchant from Southeast Asia physically went to Europe, maybe even France, saw them, thought they were cool and brought back the idea, eventually developing a market in the local area and spreading it to other SEA states and eventually producing them indigenously. Otherwise it can't be explained why they're absent from India and the Mideast.

      • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
        ·
        1 year ago

        It's not really possible for thousands of people to all reject something in 2 separate continents (MENA and India) and then have thousands of people spontaneously liking the same thing in 1 different one (Southeast Asia). Differences like that have to stem from the luck of 1 individual.

        example: anime was less popular in anglo America and more popular in Latin America. But it still got popular later on, and even during the 90s still enjoyed low level popularity in the US.

        It's however very possible for 2 continents to miss something because it was never intended for them to see or buy, while 1 person from another continent accidentally sees it and develops a market for it.

        For example, why do westerners buy handmade crafts from India? Because it's different and it looks different and interesting. Meanwhile most of the actual Indian people making those traditionally did so for survival, and you wouldn't see any non-bourgeois people buying those things

        Or the idea of Turmeric supplements. Nobody in India takes turmeric supplements, they just eat turmeric. But some westerner saw this and got the idea to market it in his own country as a supplement. same deal

        (also it's pronounced TER-MER-ICK not TUMOR-ICK, this is the literal english language even, idk why english speakers pronounce it like that)