Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 August 25

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August 25

Roman dodecahedron

Does anyone know where I might buy a replica? Temerarius (talk) 16:32, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

Interesting question (I’m fascinated by these things). So far, I’ve only been able to come up with this 3D print offer. Cheers ✦ _hugarheimur 16:50, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

@Temerarius What will you use it for? DroneB (talk) 17:40, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

We all know they're only good for one thing! Temerarius (talk) 18:10, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

Maybe I'm out of the platonic solid loop, but I have no idea... whatever you might use it for, it looks cool. A silver one went for $200 on eBay, another for $250, both in June. No current listings, though, and silver seems needlessly fancy. That's the best my Googling could come up with. › Mortee _talk 18:20, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

@Temerarius: I found an oblique mention of someone buying ("ordering") one from the Gallo-Roman Museum Tongeren (Belgium). Maybe write them an email and ask nicely? PS: Museum shops in general might be worth a try. Cheers ✦ _hugarheimur 08:04, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

Its odd that these are called "roman" because they seem to be of celtic origin really. They have to much features (details) to be handcrafted or cast effectively and so the best option would probably be to find or make a CAD-model and then 3D-Print it, which btw. can also be done with metal materials today. --Kharon (talk) 09:10, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

If you look at a map showing where they were found, the Celtic theory seems unlikely:[1] (map is from https://www.romandodecahedron.com/the-hypothesis). —2606:A000:1126:4CA:0:98F2:CFF6:1782 (talk) 01:45, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

I don't know why you say that. To my knowledge, all of the locations shown fall within areas natively inhabited by (what we now call) Celts before Rome began extending its jurisdiction. Under the Roman Empire, minorities of other ethnicities were settled in those areas, just as some Celts moved elsewhere, but the predominent part of the population, though Romanised in some aspects of their culture, would still have been enthnically Celtic and would have retained much of their pre-conquest knowledge.

It's an error to think of Romans as "cultured" and advanced, and their neighbors as "barbaric" and backward: this was Roman propaganda aimed at justifying Rome's conquests, genocides and pillaging of wealth (necessary to finance their – unique for the period – professional standing army). In reality the Celts, Greeks, Dacians etc. were as much and often more advanced in both arts and crafts. Watch or read Terry Jones' Barbarians for a countervailing viewpoint.{The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.208.127.181 (talk) 06:11, 27 August 2018 (UTC)