These Things Were ALL OVER Ancient Rome...

How often do you think about the Roman Empire? To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what your answer is because even if you do think about it, you probably do not ever think about what we’re going to cover today. Today we are talking about an intriguing little historical mystery. Let’s get our thinking caps on and try to work out the real reason these small, metal dodecahedrons were found all over the former Roman Empire.

The Mystery Object

Even though the Roman Empire ended many centuries ago, we’re still digging up plenty of bits and bobs from the time period, with amateurs and professionals alike regularly finding bits of pottery, coin hoards, settlement remains, and more. While all these things are quite commonplace and easy to identify, there has been one specific item that has popped up from Wales to Hungary, with currently more than 100 examples having been unearthed from 1739 to as recently as June 2023. It is a metal dodecahedron, a 12-sided object, and nobody can work out what it was for.

These dodecahedra have been found in various sizes ranging from about golf ball to tennis ball size, so none of them have been that large. In an attempt to show the size of these things, the Portable Antiquities Scheme website helpfully says: “All are roughly the size of an adult human fist, which, it should be noted, can vary widely, from 5cm to 11cm in diameter.”

Most have been made of a copper alloy or bronze, although there are also some stone examples. While many have been damaged, there are several intact or almost intact dodecahedrons that are currently on display in various museums across Europe. They are all hollow and each object is made of 12 pentagonal faces and each face has a hole in the middle. These holes are all of varying diameters.

Each side is flawlessly joined to the others and there is a small metal ball or knob on each corner of the dodecahedron. On a complete example, there would be 20 balls. Some are plain but others that have been found are more decorated, with engraved rings around the holes, borders around the pentagonal faces or other little markings along each edge.

These are called Roman dodecahedrons as they date back to the time of the later Roman Empire, i.e. around AD 43 to 410. They are also referred to as “Gallo-Roman dodecahedrons” as the majority have been found in places in what were Gaul, Germania and Britannia, which are now areas of France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain. A couple have also been found in Hungary but the majority are concentrated in this area.

They have also been found in a variety of situations. Some have been found in tombs, others in with a load of coins, some in what were public areas such as baths, theatres and temples. Others were found in the remains of military camps. The most perplexing thing for historians and archaeologists, however, is that nobody has a clue what they were actually for.

The Silence of the Sources

Here is one of the most intriguing issues about these things: there is no mention that anyone has ever found about them in Roman history. No writings, no drawings, no larger versions, no record of them appears to exist, although we know that they date from the Roman Empire’s time period. If they’re undamaged or minorly damaged, they show no other signs of wear and tear. So what could they be for? The suggestions are many and varied but there seems to be a sticking point to each one.

Theory: Knitting Loom

This is one of the internet’s favourite theories. In this instance, people would use the bobbles on the dodecahedron to wrap yarn around, then hook it over or whatever to create little tubes of knitting that feed down into the hollow centre of the thing. There are videos of people doing this and while it seems a bit cumbersome and unintuitive, you certainly can make fingers for a pair of gloves. The theory is that the different holes are for different sized fingers and because many of these things were found in less warm parts of the Roman Empire, it seems to stand to reason that this could be what they were for.

One YouTube channel, makecraftdo, uses a 3D printed version of a dodecahedron as a type of loom and points out that two of the largest holes are actually oval, meaning that when starting with the smallest hole at the top and rotating through them clockwise, this would be the template for the different sizes of your fingers, ending with your larger thumb. She successfully creates a whole five-fingered glove using just yarn, her hands and the dodecahedron but can’t work out how to cast the thing off and resorts to using a crochet hook. Still, it’s quite impressive and proof that you can indeed make a knitted glove using one of these things. But just because you can doesn’t mean that that is what this thing is supposed to be for.

Here are some reasons why this theory falls apart:

1. It’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It’s time consuming, fiddly, and kind of pointless when all you need to knit something is two sticks and some wool. This is a finely crafted piece of metalwork and just seems to be wasted on this type of activity.
2. While over 100 have been found, if it was something that people used to knit gloves on the regular, you’d think there’d be a lot more around.
3. The different sizes of holes are actually irrelevant in this case as the wool is wrapped around the metal knobbles, which are all a fixed and uniform distance apart. Therefore all the fingers are going to be the same size no matter which face you choose to knit from.
4. None of the knobbles found on excavated examples of the dodecahedrons had signs of wear. If wool or other fibres were constantly being looped and pulled around it, there would probably be more signs of use.
5. There are no examples of knitting from the Roman era. Romans didn’t knit. Yes, they had weaving and used looms but this was not knitting. No examples of knitted fabrics or garments have ever been found. Knitting with needles wasn’t invented until at least 500 years after the end of the Roman empire so we can safely say that the dodecahedron was not created with the intention of using it to knit gloves.

Theory: Dice or Children’s Toy

So maybe it was some sort of die or related to a child’s game? Dice had already been in existence for centuries so that was a possibility. However, there are the bobbles to consider. Each corner of the dodecahedrons had a metal ball on it which is hardly conducive to rolling. Plus, each side had a different sized hole in it, meaning that the sides weren’t equally weighted. This makes it possibly the worst potential die of all time.

As for a child’s toy? So few have been found that it makes it unlikely to have been a plaything. Also, they were found in military camps amongst other places, so unless little Julius was in the corner playing with one of these while his father was working out military strategies, it’s difficult to see how they would have got there with this theory. Plus it doesn’t do anything on its own.

If it was a game or part of a game, you would have needed other things to go with it but nobody seems to have unearthed anything else that connects with the dodecahedron.

Theory: Military Measuring Device

Some people have speculated that this was some sort of measuring device used to work out the distance or size of various objects relative to others or to act as a surveying tool. It could also have been used to measure trajectories on the battlefield. The knobs on the corners make it easy to grip or set in position and the different sized holes could act as an aid to compare or measure things.

Unfortunately that’s about as far as this theory goes. Quite apart from nobody really being able to work out how this would work in a useful way, these things were all different sizes and none of them had any handy markings or symbols. A lack of standard size plus no helpful measurement indicators equals something that’s unlikely to have been of use as a strategic military tool, or, in fact, any type of tool at all.

Theory: Decorative Object

Could this thing be nothing more than a fancy ornament to show off at home? A little doodad that takes up space and gets dusty on your mantle? The fact that they were expertly made and have been found in a tomb and in with a coin hoard at least points to the fact that they may have been considered valuable or prized possessions.

Other theories along these lines include using them as a topper for ceremonial sceptres or using them on weapons. However, these are specially crafted, not just mass produced pieces. They could be stuck on the end of a stick to make it into a kind of mace but the dodecahedrons themselves are small and not very heavy so it’s doubtful they’d make a particularly formidable weapon. The variety of sizes also means they weren’t some standard ammunition.

And why bother with the different sized holes if they’re just going to end up getting pounded into oblivion?

There was one found in a tomb with remnants of wax on it, leading to the belief that they may have been used as candle holders. This is one of those theories like the knitting one — yes, they may have been used to stick a candle in but that probably wasn’t the intended purpose. Only one has been found with wax on, making it seem more like an in-the-moment makeshift solution than the raison d’être for these little metal mysteries.

Theory: Agricultural Astronomical Instrument

If you visit “roman-dodecahedron.com”, you’ll find a hypothesis page with the title “The roman pentagon dodecahedron: an astronomic measuring instrument for determining the optimal sowing date for winter grain” by G.M.C. Wagemans.

This is a very long and detailed page which boils down to the idea that if you put the dodecahedron on a flat plate at the peaks of Spring and Autumn and let the sun shine through it, you could work out when it would be best to sow your winter grain. However, this theory has numerous problems:

1. This theory is extremely complicated. It relies on measuring sun spots through the various holes, rotating them in a certain way and calculating the angles to end up giving you a date range in which to sow your grain. Farming had already been going fine up until this point — it seems that humans had a grasp on it without using this complicated technique. The instructions include steps like: “Now turn the dodecahedron without lifting it up, in such a way that the 4 remaining areas can be checked. Write down or remember how many of the 5 measuring points have light passed through.” This continues until you’ve checked 20 points.
2. Your average farmer would not be able to make the calculations necessary in Wagemans’ hypothesis. He also assumes many things that make the practical application of his theory unlikely, such as “a perfect measuring body” when these things were made by hand so could never be 100% perfect. He also says “almost every dodecahedron has the two largest holes exactly opposite each other” which helped his theory that you would start with the sunlight shining through these two largest holes first. However, it’s “almost every dodecahedron”, not every dodecahedron, so what would the others be for?
3. He states that some examples he found had wear on the knobbles that would have been in contact with the ground. But what’s the function of all the other knobbles? If it was a tool that was supposed to be set down in a certain way, why not just have the knobbles on the sides that were supposed to be facing a certain direction?
4. The found examples of dodecahedrons were small, usually just a few inches across for the larger ones. This does not seem conducive to producing any meaningful readings. Also, why weren’t more found in a way that would tie them to agricultural or astronomical use?

Theory: Religious or Ritual Object

This is one of the stronger or at least widely held theories out there. The Romans, and especially Gallic Romans, i.e. people living in the Gaul area of mainland Europe, had all kinds of religious and ritual practices.

The most recent example of one of these dodecahedrons was found by the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group in June 2023. Norton Disney is a small village in Lincolnshire, England, named after the anglicised version of the French name d’Isigny. The example found by the volunteer archaeologists is intact and is the 33rd one found in Roman Britain. It’s 75% copper, 7% tin and 18% lead and was found specifically buried with other contemporary objects such as some Roman pottery.

The group says on their website: “A huge amount of time, energy and skill was taken to create our dodecahedron, so it was not used for mundane purposes, especially when alternative materials are available that would achieve the same purpose. The most likely use we think is for ritual and religious purposes… Roman society was full of superstition, something experienced on a daily basis. A potential link with local religious practice is our current working theory. More investigation is required though.”

But why would this particular artefact be linked to rituals? Maybe it’s the shape of the dodecahedron that holds the answer. It has twelve sides, which corresponds to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and even though Christianity was the official religion in later years, the Romans were big into astrology and a link between this kind of thing and the metal dodecahedrons doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

According to Plato, the universe is shaped like a dodecahedron and people seem to keep coming back to this theory. So maybe these little shapes held some kind of cosmic significance as charms or amulets, even if they didn’t have an actual practical purpose. Expanding this further, many of these dodecahedrons were found in the area of Gaul which was home to Celtic people.

The curator of the Gallo-Roman Museum in Belgium said in an interview with Live Science: “We rather think it has something to do with non-official activities like sorcery, fortune-telling, and so on.”

An article on ArtNews.com goes on to say: “Its magical purpose could be explained by a variety of factors. First, dodecahedrons were mostly found in the Gallo-Roman Empire, an offshoot of the Roman Empire in which magic rituals were known to have taken place. The lack of written records about dodecahedrons may point to a need to use these objects in secret, as divination and magic rituals were punished severely in the Roman Empire. Dodecahedrons have often been found near burial sites, where these rituals may have taken place.”

How, or even if these things were actually used in any rituals has yet to be discovered. A dodecahedron found in Geneva in 1982 apparently had the names of the 12 signs of the zodiac inscribed on it which would catapult this theory to the top of the list, however, it’s difficult to verify this claim or find more information. Maybe the inscriptions were added later? It would seem that if this were the reason for these dodecahedrons, more of them would have some sort of symbol or marking on each face.

Theory: Metalworker’s Showcase

Sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one. These dodecahedrons were a proof of the skill of the craftsman. Maybe there was a metalsmith standard where you had to produce one of these to get a certain level of recognition, or maybe they did it for the challenge, but they were good examples of tricky pieces. That would answer the questions of why all the holes were different sizes — it might have been to add that extra layer of technical difficulty.

Maybe making them smaller was harder than making them much bigger? That seems probable.

There has been an example of a 20-sided object being found, but there was only one of these uncovered so far. This also has multiple holes in each face and a knobble on each corner. It’s also decorated a bit more than the dodecahedrons so maybe whoever made this one was the ultimate polyhedron master.

Other Theories

There have been a myriad other theories about what these things were for, but most of them seem to fall apart when you think that only a hundred or so have ever been found. Another idea was that they were somehow used to detect counterfeit coins but this makes no sense as these dodecahedrons were all different sizes and the holes were pretty small, probably too small to be used to measure most coins. And if you had to put a coin into one of the holes it would be extremely annoying to shake it out again.

The Enduring Mystery

Plenty of these things have been unearthed but not nearly enough to make them a common object. There is no mention of them in anything we’ve read about Roman life and they don’t appear in images from the time but they have been definitively dated to the Roman Empire time period. They are only found in the more northern areas of the Empire, not in areas such as Italy, Spain, or Northern Africa. There have actually been a couple found in South-East Asia that were made of gold but these were thought to have been brought into Asia rather than made there.

Really, the best theories for what these things were for are the ones that can’t be definitively dismissed, as there are none that we can point to with certainty and say “yes! That’s it! We’ve done it, well done everybody!”

Who knows, maybe many generations in the future, people will be puzzling over Bluetooth headsets or Crocs or those cushions where one side is sequins and the other is Nicolas Cage’s face. It’s good that we don’t understand everything, it makes the past more fun and any layperson’s opinion on this is just as likely to be correct as anything else.

Perhaps the most likely explanation is that these were metalworkers’ showcases of skill, and maybe most of these little creations weren’t supposed to have any use other than just being a cool thing to look at, with many ending up being used as paperweights, for example. Maybe they were all created by the same person which is why so few have been found. Whatever your opinion, you’re probably nearer the mark than the crop timing theory.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Roman dodecahedrons?

Roman dodecahedrons are small, metal objects with 12 sides, found throughout the former Roman Empire. They are typically made of copper alloy or bronze, hollow, and have holes of varying diameters in each face. Their exact purpose remains unknown.

Where have Roman dodecahedrons been found?

Roman dodecahedrons have been found in various locations across the former Roman Empire, including Wales, Hungary, and areas that were once Gaul, Germania, and Britannia. They have been discovered in tombs, with coin hoards, in public areas like baths and temples, and in military camps.

What are the sizes of Roman dodecahedrons?

Roman dodecahedrons range in size from about the size of a golf ball to a tennis ball, roughly equivalent to an adult human fist, which can vary from 5cm to 11cm in diameter.

What materials were used to make Roman dodecahedrons?

Most Roman dodecahedrons were made of copper alloy or bronze, although some stone examples have also been found.

What are some theories about the purpose of Roman dodecahedrons?

Theories about the purpose of Roman dodecahedrons include being used as knitting tools, dice or toys, measuring devices, decorative ornaments, candle holders, agricultural instruments, religious or ritual objects, and proofs of a craftsman’s skill.

Why is the knitting theory for Roman dodecahedrons unlikely?

The knitting theory is unlikely because Romans did not knit, there are no examples of knitted fabrics from the Roman era, and the dodecahedrons show no signs of wear that would be expected from frequent use with yarn.

What is the religious or ritual theory for Roman dodecahedrons?

The religious or ritual theory suggests that Roman dodecahedrons were used in non-official activities like sorcery or fortune-telling. This theory is supported by their discovery in burial sites and the lack of written records about them, which may indicate secret use.

What is the craftsman’s skill theory for Roman dodecahedrons?

The craftsman’s skill theory proposes that Roman dodecahedrons were created to demonstrate the skill of the metalsmith. The varying sizes of the holes and the overall complexity of the object could have served as a proof of technical ability.

Why is the agricultural instrument theory for Roman dodecahedrons considered unlikely?

The agricultural instrument theory is considered unlikely because it is too complicated and relies on precise measurements and calculations that would have been impractical for the average farmer. Additionally, the small size of the dodecahedrons makes them unsuitable for producing meaningful readings.

What is the significance of the dodecahedron shape in Roman culture?

The dodecahedron shape has significance in Roman culture because it corresponds to the twelve signs of the zodiac. Plato also described the universe as being shaped like a dodecahedron, which may have given these objects cosmic significance as charms or amulets.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: These Things Were ALL OVER Ancient Rome…
• Hero image source by thegetty / openverse, cc0.