Except that's probably not what they're for, I saw a video recently (I think it was this one) that went into detail about the reasons why it doesn't make much sense for these to be a knitting tool.
histories mysteries
Submitted 11 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/fc269541-8e77-40ee-9232-cb3c26785cf0.png
Comments
FaceDeer@fedia.io 11 months ago
Rooskie91@discuss.online 11 months ago
There’s a lesson here about the differences between history and a good historical narrative, but that’s the lesson of most history and no one ever listens to it.
daltotron@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There’s a lesson here about the differences between history and a good historical narrative, but that’s the lesson of most history and no one ever listens to it.
There’s a lesson here about the differences between history and a good historical narrative, but that’s the lesson of most history and no one ever listens to it.
gregorum@lemm.ee 11 months ago
First and foremost: knitting wasn’t invented until centuries later.
Entropywins@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I hope this is the next episode of hardcore history. I could use 30 hours of Dan Carlin context on knitting…
Lightfire228@pawb.social 11 months ago
Decoding the Unknown (also by Simon Whistler) did a video on these as well
JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
What’s up with the narrator? He’s got like 20 big channels he reads for. Are the channels connected and run by the same group, or does he host for a bunch of independent channels?
Lightfire228@pawb.social 11 months ago
I’m pretty sure he maintains the YT channels themselves, but he has a host of writers who write his scripts
The two Channels / Podcasts I follow are DecodingtheUnknown (deep dives into ubsolved mysteries and paranormal debunks) and the Casual Criminalist (true crime)
For both, he does a cold read, and often interjects with his own stories and theories
FaceDeer@fedia.io 11 months ago
I think he's just snowballed in popularity over the years because he's good at reading these scripts in a way that sounds both smart and fun. The different channels focus on different styles and subject areas, letting you pick and choose what kind of thing you're interested in.
I rather like his "Decoding the Unknown" channel, where he gets scripts debunking various paranormal or otherwise mysterious events and he reads them for the first time as it's being recorded, taking lots of opportunities to interject his own theories and speculation and just generally rag on the concept of the paranormal as he goes.
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
That’s a d12. Clearly, the Romans were using it to play D&D.
MeatPilot@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I cast fear on Julius Caesar!
Uh oh, Julius Ceasar’s only path is in range of all the members of Senate. So they each member gets one attack of opportunity.
Go ahead and roll 60 decohedrean’s to hit.
Looks like 23 hit!
brisk@aussie.zone 11 months ago
Num10ck@lemmy.world 11 months ago
maybe its for measuring how much pasta you need to boil
halvar@lemm.ee 11 months ago
how much pasta you need to knit a toga or some shit
lauha@lemmy.one 11 months ago
Maybe it is a knitting-pastaing-horsing multitool
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 11 months ago
Last time one of these threads popped up, I saw someone suggest that it might have been a holder for some of those bottles with pointed bottoms the Romans had, don’t remember the name. I’m not sure if this is a hypothesis with any level of acceptance, but it feels like it could be plausible just from looking at the thing, having different sized holes would allow different sizes of bottle to fit, and you’d want feet for each possible side that it could be resting on, which would explain the prongs.
BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world 11 months ago
These devices are rather small and most amphora seem to be much larger. The shape of amphora helped with shipping, so they were typucally larger than a device that can fit in your hand.
PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’m not sure if this is a hypothesis with any level of acceptance
Unless an actual record is found describing what they were used for, it’s all just guesses anyway.
grue@lemmy.world 11 months ago
MonkderDritte@feddit.de 11 months ago
Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 11 months ago
coaxil@aussie.zone 11 months ago
Spinny boi
Zozano@aussie.zone 11 months ago
It’s a girth measurer.
Death_Equity@lemmy.world 11 months ago
By the looks of it, the Romans were size queens and kings. The frescos and mosaics of Pompeii support that theory.
Klnsfw@lemmynsfw.com 11 months ago
Grandma knows how to use it.
TootSweet@lemmy.world 11 months ago
My mother got really interested in these things a while ago. I think she mostly buys into the glove-knitting theory. Whatever the case, I 3D printed her a model of one and it’s sitting on the mantle over her fireplace.
drolex@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
Archaeologists in 2000 years will be puzzled again. “Plastic dodecahedra found near broken mantelpieces, what could it be used for? Anyway I made one out of technetium for my grandma”
nxdefiant@startrek.website 11 months ago
“It was probably either religious in nature, or used for deciding when to put seeds in the ground”
iAvicenna@lemmy.world 11 months ago
possibly used to start the primal source of heat called fire
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
I 3D printed her a model of one and it’s sitting on the mantle over her fireplace.
That kinda hints to it not being very useful then…
sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 11 months ago
Grandma’s are the best
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Grandma is are indeed
Moghul@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Grandma has are the best, surely.
whereBeWaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
You put fossils in them dude
Generous1146@beehaw.org 11 months ago
Dang it, someone thought of it already
stringere@leminal.space 11 months ago
jlow@beehaw.org 11 months ago
Possible Ritual Use™ 😸
Love these, though I’ll never remember the name or how to write it …
Shareni@programming.dev 11 months ago
Source: it was revealed to me in a dream
PiJiNWiNg@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
To me it looks like something you’d use to easily make a Monkey Fist for throwing line to/from a pier.
ns1@feddit.uk 11 months ago
I just assumed it was one of these www.voting.ukscientists.com/penrose.html
Mango@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s a ghastly that ran out of gas.
dumbass@leminal.space 11 months ago
It’s just a papyrus weight
ringwraithfish@startrek.website 11 months ago
What a wonderful rabbit hole to go down. My takeaways are it could possibly be used for knitting, but traditional spool knitting that the Grandma uses in the video doesn’t show up in history until the 1500s. If the Romans did use it for gloves then knitting has been around much longer than we have evidence of or they were using a different method with the dodecahedron.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I think I also read these were usually found with treasures and with minimal or no wear, so there isn’t any evidence they were used for anything.
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
The best suggested explanation IMO is that it’s a way for blacksmiths to demonstrate their skill.
“lol stupid scientists don’t know what knitting is” I would file under “actively anti-intellectual”.