Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/do...man-empire

INTRO: In the first episode of Buck Rogers, the 1980s television series about an astronaut from the present marooned in the 25th century, our hero visits a museum of the future. A staff member brandishes a mid-20th-century hair dryer. “Early hand laser,” he opines. As an observation of how common knowledge gets lost over time, it’s both funny and poignant. Because our museums also stock items from the past that completely baffle the experts.

Few are as intriguing as the hundred or so Roman dodecahedrons that we have found. We know next to nothing about these mysterious objects—so little, in fact, that the various theories about their meaning and function are themselves a source of entertainment... (MORE - details)

Roman dodecahedrons: history's mystery ... https://youtu.be/j1GvXuLCdNA

There were a lot of words that robot couldn't pronounce.

My guess it that it was used to verify the denomination of currency by size.

(May 14, 2023 09:48 PM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]My guess it that it was used to verify the denomination of currency by size.

I like that speculation, Syne.

We know that in ancient (medieval and early modern times too) people would shave the edges off gold and silver coins like those the ancient Romans (sometimes) used. So a handy way to verify that coins were full size might have been useful.

A tougher problem was that precious metal coins in Roman imperial times were debased by the government that minted them, so actual silver or gold content was maybe even a bigger issue.