<story><title>Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England</title><url>https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/another-of-ancient-romes-mysterious-12-sided-objects-has-been-found-in-england-180983632/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mrob</author><text>I like the theory that it&amp;#x27;s an examination piece to qualify as a master metalworker. Casting a flawless dodecahedron could have been a way to demonstrate your skill. The shape is somewhat arbitrary: anything that&amp;#x27;s both difficult to cast and easy to examine for quality would work, but once people started making dodecahedrons that&amp;#x27;s what people expected and it became a kind of standard.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tarikjn</author><text>The equivalent today would be 3Dbenchy boats -- &amp;quot;we found an identical boat toy design in multiple sites made of different plastic materials, colors and sizes. It is spread universally around the World cities, found in sites of crafts, leading us to believe it is an idol of a new 21st century religion predominant among workers of the arts and crafts&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>Another Roman dodecahedron has been unearthed in England</title><url>https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/another-of-ancient-romes-mysterious-12-sided-objects-has-been-found-in-england-180983632/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mrob</author><text>I like the theory that it&amp;#x27;s an examination piece to qualify as a master metalworker. Casting a flawless dodecahedron could have been a way to demonstrate your skill. The shape is somewhat arbitrary: anything that&amp;#x27;s both difficult to cast and easy to examine for quality would work, but once people started making dodecahedrons that&amp;#x27;s what people expected and it became a kind of standard.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yetanotherloser</author><text>I like that theory too and offer a followon explanation: to make a dodecahedron you must make an accurate regular pentagon and this is not trivial with ancient geometric methods, you need to have learned a thing or two to get there. This makes it a better test than, say, an icosahedron. But we do know that the Roman empire wasn&amp;#x27;t completely unfamiliar with icosahedral dice, probably for a magical or divinatory purpose rather than determining whether your wizard made her saving throw.&lt;p&gt;An analogy to this &amp;quot;masterpiece&amp;quot; theory might be the industrial-age &amp;quot;Turner&amp;#x27;s cube&amp;quot; that demonstrates a pretty solid level of ability with a lathe.</text></comment>