Found on another site

[FlatCat]

I found this at http://www.futilitycloset.com/category/history/page/4/ , about halfway down the page.

Any ideas?

What is this? Well, it's a dodecahedron, but what was its purpose? More than 100 of these objects have been found between England and Hungary; this one was discovered among Roman ruins near Frankfurt. Typically they're made of bronze or stone, with a hollow center and a round hole in the middle of each face, and they range in size from 4 to 11 centimeters.

The Romans likely made them in the second or third century, but strangely they appear in no pictures from that period and they're not mentioned in Roman literature.

Best guesses so far: survey instruments, candlesticks, or dice.

 

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[Montana Jim]

No clue... interesting.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Forerunner to the "Magic Eight Ball" divination device.

"Ask again later."

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ssanty/cgi-bin/eightball.cgi

 

[Mackaydon]

"This is a well-known but uncommon object found throughout the north-west provinces of the Roman empire. Roughly 20 examples may be known from Britain, but remarkably there are now two from Gill Mill (the first, an unstratified metal-detector find made some years ago, was recently featured in The Thames Through Time above). Their function is uncertain, and there have been many theories, but a recent assessment relating them to ‘the domain of cosmological models, astrology and mystical numerology’ is plausible."
Don......
Source (with pic):http://thehumanjourney.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=309&Itemid=129

 

[Mackaydon]

And another opinion--with the same conclusion:
"The function of these dodecahedra has not been determined. Speculation includes: candle stands, flower stands, staff or scepter decorations, surveying instruments, leveling instrument, finger ring-size gauges, dice, a toy to throw and catch on a stick, and geometric sculpture. No one knows."

http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/roman_dodecahedra.html

 

[trikikiwi]

Interesting!

I reckon it was designed by some brilliant person as, The Universal Travellers' Candle Holder

something like this
http://www.nomadtravel.co.uk/catalog/browse/power-adaptors/power-traveller-world-travel-plug

To my tiny little mind, the geographical spread assists that theory

it makes sense to me
Mike

 

[Jeffro]

Squirrel bait.