The Mysterious Dodecahedrons From Across Ancient Rome
A typical Roman dodecahedron. (image credit: Carole Raddato)
Post Author - Peter Bashaw
The ancient Romans left behind architectural marvels, a rich philosophical tradition, and a complete pantheon of gods and heroes, but among their many relics, one remains truly mysterious. The Gallo-Roman dodecahedrons refer to a series of copper alloy metallic objects that have been found throughout the ancient Roman world, particularly in what was Gaul. They all have a uniform dodecahedron shape with 12 pentagon-shaped sides, each with a hole of different sizes and twenty vertices topped with knobs. Why they were built has never been conclusively explained.
There have been 130 or so dodecahedrons discovered, and seemingly as many explanations for their use. Were they a measuring tool, a head of a mace, a decorative ornament, or any number of other things? While the dodecahedrons do have some markings, there are no numbers or letters to be found on them, suggesting they’re not an instrument or anything used for measurement. The fact that these objects were made from valuable copper and are often found in coin hordes or graves suggests a symbolic value.
What then could the meaning of these objects be? In his system of geometry, Plato believed that four of the polyhedron shapes represented the four classical elements. The tetrahedron stood for fire, the hexahedron for earth, the icosahedron for water, and the octahedron for air. The dodecahedron, in turn, was a symbol of the totality of the universe, which was further elaborated by Alcinous, a later Platonist philosopher.
Alcinous speculated that each side of the dodecahedron symbolized one of the twelve zodiac signs, and so the shape stood in for the stars the Romans believed governed reality. Alcinous further suggested that as each pentagon can be divided into five triangles, and each of those triangles can divided into six smaller triangles in turn, a dodecahedron contains 360 triangles, itself connected to the 360 degrees in the zodiac.
In Alcinous’ writing, the dodecahedron is described as an all-encompassing symbol for the totality of the universe. Or, as others have suggested, it’s a spool for knitting gloves. The actual function or meaning of the Gallo-Roman dodecahedrons may simply never be known. So the next time you’re pondering the Roman empire, see if you can come up with a new explanation for these strange devices.
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