{"id":63770,"date":"2024-04-30T05:56:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T10:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=63770"},"modified":"2024-04-30T17:20:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T22:20:30","slug":"roman-dodecahedra-between-southeast-asia-and-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=63770","title":{"rendered":"Roman dodecahedra between Southeast Asia and England"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"They are known as one of archaeology\u2019s great enigmas \u2013 hollow 12-sided objects from the Roman era with no known purpose or use.\"<\/p>\r\n

So begins this article by Jessica Murray in The Guardian (4\/29\/24):<\/p>\r\n

Mysterious Roman dodecahedron to go on display in Lincoln<\/a><\/p>\r\n

There are no known descriptions or drawings of object in Roman literature, making its purpose unclear<\/p>\r\n

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<\/a><\/figure>\r\n
Roman bronze dodecahedron found in Tongeren, Gallo-Roman Museum, Tongeren<\/a><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Aside from testing readers' knowledge of Greek (\"solid having twelve faces,\" 1560s, from Greek d\u014ddeka<\/span> \"twelve\" [see dodeca-<\/a>] + hedra<\/span> \"seat, base, chair, face of a geometric solid,\" from PIE root *sed-<\/a> (1) \"to sit.\" [source<\/a>]), to justify putting this mystifying object from late antiquity on Language Log, I will come right out and state my hypothesis:\u00a0 since the Roman dodecahedron under consideration has 12 sides \/ faces, I believe it may be some sort of astronomical sighting \/ aligning instrument related to the zodiac for computational \/ calendrical \/ correlating purposes.\u00a0 The knobs would be for seating (N.B.) the object on a flat surface and \/ or wrapping strings around to fix attachments in position, the holes for inserting sticks \/ pointers and for viewing through to look at objects (in the heavens? on a chart?).<\/p>\r\n

Since the zodiac (cf. Old English twelf tacna <\/i>[\"the twelve signs']) is intimately involved with the history or writing, which we have often discussed on Language Log and which has been deeply probed in the papers of Brian Pellar published in Sino-Platonic Papers <\/i>(see \"Selected readings\" below), that is the main reason why I have brought this topic before the readership here.<\/p>\r\n

Of course, there are many different ideas about what the dodecahedra were used for.\u00a0 Brian Pellar will be interested in this one, since he maintains that the yearly wheat cycle was intimately related to the zodiac, and hence the alphabet:<\/p>\r\n

Another interesting theory is that the object was [an] astronomic measuring instrument used for determining the optimal sowing date for winter grain. The angle of the sunlight can be measured with the device, and thereby one specific date in springtime, and one date in the autumn can be determined with accuracy. The dates could have been used for specific and important dates in agriculture, for example.<\/p>\r\n

(source<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n

No matter what the actual, practical use of the Roman dodecahedra may originally have been, judging from its special placement in subsequent burials, it clearly later became a religious, ritual relic and may not have had any utilitarian purpose at all.<\/p>\r\n

Secondarily, as many of my posts on LL attest, I am concerned with the transmission of cultural attributes, including language, in early times.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Smaller dodecahedra with the same features (holes and knobs) and made from gold have been found in South-East Asia along the Maritime Silk Road<\/a> and the earliest items appear to be from the Roman epoch. Examples include those uncovered in \u00d3c Eo<\/a>, Vietnam, by Louis Malleret<\/a>, who concluded that the objects represented the influence of Mediterranean trade on the Funan economy<\/a>. Similar decorative gold dodecahedrons have been found in the Pyu city-states<\/a> and Khao Sam Kaeo.<\/p>\r\n

(Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n

Finding Roman dodecahedra in Southeast Asia and in England during the first half of the first millennium AD, whatever their purpose may have been, is hard evidence of connections across long distances.<\/p>\r\n

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Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n