946
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Hella unlikely they were used to knit gloves

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] [email protected] 100 points 6 months ago

Unlikely why?

Here's a video of it being used for that: https://youtu.be/76AvV601yJ0?si=kvdh4ZLiBCmyldPN

I have seen people argue that "they are pretty intricate and expensive things to use only for the purposes of knitting gloves. ". To them, I would like to submit my wife's $1100 sewing machine that definitely gets used, and isn't just some weird status symbol among creative types.

[-] [email protected] 65 points 6 months ago

Just because you could use it for knitting it doesn't mean it was its purpose.
There's not a lot of detail, but you can check on the Wiki why it's ultimately an unlikely explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron#Purpose

[-] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Thanks! I really like the idea that it was a test of skill of a blacksmith.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Knitting isn’t attested until almost a millennium after this artifact was created. Nålbinding was practiced during this era in a variety of areas and can look very similar, but is mechanically very diffferent.

load more comments (10 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] [email protected] 67 points 6 months ago

Ofk. They just made them to troll future archaeologist

avgx1MW_460s-1642439732

[-] [email protected] 37 points 6 months ago

Just like my code. It's obvious what it does and doesn't need documentation.. until I try to understand it 2 years later.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

Lol, try two weeks later 😅

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 36 points 6 months ago

My mother has a fascination with Roman Dodecahedra, so I 3D printed her one for Christmas. She hasn't knitted any gloves with them yet. (And may never, but she still likes it and has it sitting on the mantle over the fireplace.)

[-] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

Printing a Roman dodecahedron seems like an interesting torture test for a 3D printer, plenty of overhangs.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

Yeah, the particular model I printed was specifically designed to be easy-ish to print. It's printed in like 32 parts (one for each face and one connector for each vertex) and requires assembly after printing. All to avoid overhangs and such.

But yeah. Raw-dogging it with the supports would be pretty nightmarish. Lol.

[-] TheSlad 35 points 6 months ago

Archeologists when we're ancient:

"Wtf is these?"

"I dunno but I bet my mum could knit a glove with it"

[-] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It'll take them a single step on them to understand these were used in wars. That they are no longer used because they were probably banned for human rights violations.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

Children's caltrop set.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Rule number 1 of archaeology: if you don't know what it is, then it's religious.

load more comments (7 replies)
[-] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago

Every Roman has a plumbus in their home. It's clearly a Latin word.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

E plumbus unum

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago

That's a prime chaotic resonator, It's to apply fossils to your gear..

[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

By the shining golden arse of innocence, I got that reference.

[-] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It's a rope junction, with the different holes for different knots and rope bundles, with the spokes serving as rope bend/end points. Presumably it would get weeded out as the places where it was employed either stopped making use of them, like perhaps the weather fabric roof shielding of the coliseum, or ended up using more specialized means, like for sailing.

load more comments (7 replies)
[-] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago

You don't know what to do with the three seashells?

[-] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago

I like how archeologists never come to the conclusion that something could just be an art trend.

Everything has to have a useful purpose even though we all own stuff with no actual purpose.

[-] Barbarian 37 points 6 months ago

The default bucket that archeologists throw stuff into if they really don't know is "religious object".

[-] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

Oftentimes, that’s a sort of inside joke. If it’s even remotely probe-shaped, they assume it was used for sex. But since that doesn’t look nice on academic papers, they’ll use “ritual” as a euphemism.

Seriously, archeologists find a lot of ancient dildos.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

The wiki on this specific object briefly mentions it may have been for decoration

[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah it's funny that's never the conclusion but logically it makes sense to not dismiss something as unknown until we're sure it wasn't used for anything else. Still can't wait for future civilizations to be very confused when they see my collection of funny looking coins.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

How dare you assert my wall of funkopops has no purpose!

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

Until I looked at the comments here I thought this was the little box thingy that Shadowheart had in BG3.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago

Alright, hear me out...lamp.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago

I like the idea that it was a blacksmith "benchy." Archeologists might do the same with the one 3D printing hobbyists make.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

Archeologists in the future: WHY THE FUCK ARE THERE SO MANY LITTLE BOATS?!

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

What else would it be? It's obviously a Katamari Damacy.

[-] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I love how, in this very thread, there are 3-4 pretty confident (and completely different) answers stating, without much doubt, its obvious purpose.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago

My personal idea is that they are objects created both to flex metalworking craftsman skill and in worship of sacred geometry. Ancient peoples ascribed divinity to the harmonies of the universe, especially the harmonies in mathematics like geometry. The fancier looking platonic solids like dodecahedron and icosohedron have almost magical levels of symmetry built in to them making them both aesthetically pleasing complex shapes. The fact they even exist inspires philosophical and even spiritual thoughts. As far as I understand romans had some very impressive archetecture incorporating mathematical ratios almost constantly, archetects and metal workers may very well have needed to worship geometry as a divine aspect in order to achieve such neurotic levels of mathematics in their aesthetic.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

My theory is that they had no practical purpose, they were just a trendy knickknack that eventually fell out of fashion. A Roman equivalent of a fidget spinner or something.

In a few thousand years whatever has become of humanity will be digging up fidget spinners and wondering about them in the same way we do with dodecahedrons. It's not as if anyone will have been preserving fidget spinner media for millennia to explain them.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

It's a cat toy. They didn't have laser pointers back then.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

YouTube: ALIeNs ToLd RoMaNs AbOuT ViRuSeS!!

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

I'm thinking coin sorter. You start by sorting the smallest coins through the littlest holes, and work your way up.

I'm a knitter, and making gloves with it just doesn't compute for me. It's too clumsy, with too many extra steps. They'd be making gloves from fabric or leather.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

I think you can bring it to Master Rahool for a piece of exotic gear.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

The thingamabob needs no description

[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

Looks like my dick would fit. It's a urinal.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

Has anyone ever tried gathering them all in one place?

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

That's SCP-184 and you don't wanna know what it does.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

does....does it go in your butt?

[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

No, only things that have a flange.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

i saw someone suggest it was for hanging torches and i desperately want to know what the fuck the inside of their mind looks like, and what they think a torch is

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
946 points (98.0% liked)

memes

8761 readers
2879 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

Sister communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS