Physical Features: Hollow Bronze Objects with 12 Pentagonal Faces

The Dodecahedron: Everything You Wanted to Know About Rome's Most Mysterious Artifact
Source: The Dodecahedron: Everything You Wanted to Know About Rome's Most Mysterious Artifact by The Historian's Craft

Hollow copper alloy objects with 12 pentagonal faces. Each corner has a small knob. Size varies 40-85mm, weight 35-330g. Each face has a circular hole of varying sizes. Cast using lost wax method.

Key facts:

- Primarily copper alloy (bronze), with rare iron examples documented

- All hollow with 12 pentagonal faces, 30 edges, 20 corners

- Each corner has a solid ball pinned and soldered to the body

- One exception from London has three balls per corner

- Height range: 40-85mm, weight: 35-330g (one outlier at 1,044g)

- Found mainly in Western Europe (Roman Empire / Gallo-Roman territories)

Key facts

  • Four varieties: bronze (majority), iron, silver, and gold (from Vietnam/China)
  • All hollow with 12 pentagonal faces, 30 edges, 20 corners
  • Each corner has a solid ball pinned and soldered to the body
  • One exception from London has three balls per corner
  • Height range: 40-85mm, weight: 35-330g (one outlier at 1,044g)
  • Each face has a hole, none of the same size - no two dodecahedra are alike
  • Lab tests reveal bronze composition with copper, tin, lead, zinc, phosphorus, iron, aluminum
  • Probably formed using lost wax method with imperfect casting

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Sources

The Decahedr-What? - Pages By Pagephspagesbypage.com
It has twelve flat pentagonal faces with each face having a circular hole of varying diameter in the middle. The holes connect to the hollow ...
School Art Supplies 2019 - Priceless Catalogue - FlipHTML5fliphtml5.com
Contains 4 each of sizes 20mm, 40mm & 60mm. Sizes 20mm, 40mm, 60mm. HHB60 ... Size: 35 x 43 x 35 H cm Weight: 31 kg Size: 35 x 57 x 35 H cm Weight: 38 ...
Download PDF Catalogue - Carba-Tec - YUMPUyumpu.com
40 tap set of 3pc each size round<br />. die 1/8” x 40, 5/32” x 40, 3 ... They have marking holes at every<br /> .5mm as well!<br ...
Download Catalogue (PDF - 38.2mb) - Carba-Tec - YUMPUyumpu.com
AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST RANGE OF TOOLS FOR WOOD<br />. CATALOGUE<br />. May 2013. Table of Contents<br />. Woodworking Articles<br />.
[PDF] middle/late iron age site and anglo-saxon cemetery - UCL Discoverydiscovery.ucl.ac.uk
Fig 2.1 Plan of features and selected sections pre-dating the Middle/Late Iron Age .
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