That 'Roman dodecahedron' thing keeps getting called a weapon

I keep seeing people on social media say those Roman dodecahedrons were some kind of throwing star or weapon, but there's zero combat damage on any of the 100+ found ones. My local museum curator showed me one up close last month, and it was clearly a knitting or measuring tool based on the stable wear patterns around the holes.

2 comments

2 Comments

theawest1d ago

Oh man, @piper_green you actually make a really good point about the wear patterns matching sling stones and target practice gear. I hadn't thought about the holes possibly holding removable cords or spikes that got taken out before burial. That would explain why none of the frames show obvious combat damage but still have that polished wear around the holes from being gripped or thrown repeatedly. The museum curator I talked to said the dodecahedrons show a consistent pattern of wear that matches other Roman measuring tools they've found, but that doesn't rule out them being used for practice throwing at fixed distances either.

piper_green2d ago

Why would we assume the wear patterns prove it's a crafting tool instead of a weapon? Just because there's no combat damage doesn't mean it wasn't used for throwing practice or ritualized fighting. The holes could have held weighted cords or spikes that were removed before burial, leaving only the base frame behind. Plus, a lot of ancient weapons show similar wear around fastening points from being handled repeatedly, not from combat. You can see the same thing on old sling stones or throwing sticks that were used for target practice, not war. I'm not saying it's definitely a weapon, but writing it off as a knitting tool seems too neat and tidy.