Amateur archaeologists in England have unearthed a stunning Roman dodecahedron — a mysterious class of objects that has baffled experts for centuries.
The dodecahedron — a 12-sided metal shell about the size of a grapefruit — was found this past summer during a dig in a farmer's field near the Lincolnshire village of Norton Disney, located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southeast of Sheffield.
A previous geophysical survey, which had detected underground areas where the Earth's magnetic field had been disturbed, had revealed what looked like a buried pit at the site, and metal detectorists had already found Roman coins and broaches in the same field, said Richard Parker, the secretary of the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group, an organization of local volunteers.
Parker was making a cup of tea nearby when a shout went up from some of the volunteers, who'd just unearthed the dodecahedron in one of the trenches the group made at the site for the two-week dig.
Looks like an enrichment item for a pet, might have held food. Most likely held a consumable. Something segments of the population used then possibly refilled. Make up, creamed honey, a condiment, resin or a lubricant... Something like that.
Or I suppose it could have been a puzzle of some description, or perhaps something to display jewelry on... Or something to weigh down a rope or a sash... or a scroll... Or perhaps it's a kind of door stop... Or a holder of whatever writing implements they used.
I believe the current prevailing view is they were used for knitting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76AvV601yJ0
I have mixed feelings about this hypothesis. Doesn't seem to explain the material chosen, and it's likely weight. Seems like an extravagance for a single function object... It also seems like there would be other ways to knit such items. After all we don't use anything like that today... Apparently wooden knitting needles and our fingers are good enough today, but weren't back then?
But maybe I just don't want to see such a fascinating mystery die too soon.
Different knitting tools create different things. You can't create the same thing with two needles as you can with bobbin laces.
As for material, maybe most of them were wooden and didn't preserve, but the fancy ones used by highborn that were skilled in it were brass and considered such a nice thing they'd be buried with it.
...but also, there's this example, which doesn't have room in the centre for a finger:
https://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/figs/roman-icosahedron.jpg
However, Romans did apparently practice some form of wire weaving jewelry:
https://www.sunaylaluna.com/2020/05/13/the-history-of-wire-weaving/?lang=en&cn-reloaded=1