Science Memes

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history's mysteries (mander.xyz)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 139 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What a wonderful rabbit hole to go down. My takeaways are it could possibly be used for knitting, but traditional spool knitting that the Grandma uses in the video doesn't show up in history until the 1500s. If the Romans did use it for gloves then knitting has been around much longer than we have evidence of or they were using a different method with the dodecahedron.

[–] [email protected] 88 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think I also read these were usually found with treasures and with minimal or no wear, so there isn’t any evidence they were used for anything.

[–] [email protected] 94 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The best suggested explanation IMO is that it’s a way for blacksmiths to demonstrate their skill.

“lol stupid scientists don’t know what knitting is” I would file under “actively anti-intellectual”.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago

So it's the ancient Roman blacksmith's version of Benchy. Got it

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Kinda like the little nib on top of old saw blades. It doesn't really do anything, but if they can make that complex little nib, then they can probably make pretty decent sawblades too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I've always heard that the nib was meant to help you gauge when to stop your pull stroke and start your push stroke so that you use the whole saw and don't wear the teeth unevenly. Is this not the case?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Nib only exists to prove your saw maker was a competent professional

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Google says it's a vestigial ornament to represent a handle from when steel quality was poor.

That is all saws used to have two handles because of poor steel quality. The nib was where the front handle would attach. Later the front handle wasn't needed but the nib remained and was later shrunk.

A toolmaker could put a nib and still have bad quality teeth. Doesn't seem like you would judge quality by the nib.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Iirc it was only found in northern areas. Can't see demonstrations of skill being only there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Maybe the ones elsewhere were too busy being productive.