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@01:28 Overview
@02:15 Influences
@05:26 Details & clues
@08:00 Hole size analysis
@09:35 Theories
@23:02 Ideas
@28:29 Conclusion

The most comprehensive video on this topic.

The best video on the subject. cheers

This is the first video I've seen that covers potential precursors to the "dods". Very nicely done, thanks for sharing. New sub now👍

The most complete video about the subject, great work.

They gonna be scratching their heads in a couple centuries when they find our fidget spinners.

Excellent summary, the best I have found so far. Thank you!

It strikes me that the knobs make it easier to hold them in your hand and also prevents them from accidentially rolling away

I love your content.  Keep up the good work and keep the faith.

Great work! I certainly appreciate your methodology.

Excellent presentation. I have been looking for a cogent history with analysis of current theories.  
  The recommendation of a book appreciated

Great video! Love the format of the counter argument table for a great theorie overview. I do count myself as one of the proponents of the recent cypher theorie though and would like to provide some counter counter arguments as food for thoughts. the why not wooden argument leaves out the double function in sealing the message after encryption. There is also an argument which parts of the system need to be durable and able to survive longer travels. The wooden components of the system can be crafted on site from written instructions which include the cypher wheel permutations. The dodecahedron is just a decorative object without this codebook/cypherwheels and can be used as a gravegood, stored in coinhoards or turn up in many places as mementos of veteran communication legionairs. The hole size variability is in my opinion not a counter but an argument for this theorie since it would be most optimal if an individual hole size exist exactly two times. Finding the two sister dodecahedrons of a communication channel with exactly the same hole configuration would be nearly impossible after all these centuries especially if one side of the communication channel properly got rid of the secret crypto tech by recycling the bronze. The whole need for secrecy in a crypto system also explains why there is no mention of this in historic sources and some more enforced secrecy measures would also explain the absence of finds in the heart of the roman empire. although this point is still one of the more puzzeling factors that there were zero finds in italy so far. The last counter point of same size holes opposite each other for me just means that for one codewheel it doesnt matter if the dodecahedron is flipped 180° or that this is an unused side pair.

Intriguingly Intriguing

This seems fairly well thought out. By showing how many counter arguments you can make against certain ideas, you certainly can give a potential sign to if an idea is particularly unlikely.

Also the older some what similar objects is certainly interesting. Though I suppose there is a good chance we'll never be entirely sure what they were for in the end then.  Well there probably are still more to find, so perhaps one will show some new previously unknown aspect to add to the whole.

New Night Scarab video lets go!!!!!!

I've built a lot of pretty polyhedra, there's a joy to contemplating geometric forms, M.C Escher's work revels in it. And I've often thought that the function of the mysterious ancient dodecahedron is, well, to be a dodecahedron. Any culture that explores geometry will eventually hit on the hard fact that there are five and only five Platonic solids: tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, icosahedron and dodecahedron, this last being the only one graced with pentagons. The universe allows just five such tidy solids, you can't make a seven-side cube.

There's a tradition of contemplating imagined polyhedra, how they reflect and fit together, there's a fine old painting (sorry I can't find it) of two monks practicing it, airy polyhedra hovering above them. Kepler's model of the solar system, a nested set of Platonic solids, reflects this kind of mindset. Geometry is universal, a universal truth, surely these forms express something profound.

Now, the human world is full of cubes, we live and work in boxes and fill them with boxy furniture, orthagonals. Any tripod is a tetrahedron. Common crystals often form natural octahedra, such as fluorite.

(You say these dodecahedra never show up in Roman art, I can't find any octahedra either, not in bronze, or stone or anything.)

But look around the room, and the world, and you'll find a dearth of dodeca. The dodecahedron is the hardest of the five to construct, and there's no real practical need to construct one. The icosahedron's the same way. You will only see one if someone goes to a great deal of trouble to construct it.

I think the knobs serve to protect the flat pentagons from scuffing, raising them above that rough table top. Any scrapes on the knobs would be easier to polish away, too. And though knitting may not be the answer, string looped around this knob and that can serve to explore the object's geometric layout. For example, there's nothing apparently boxy about a dodeca, but there are right angles lurking in it: stand it on one edge and you'll see pairs of edges at X Y and Z axes. Looping string would point that out. And pretty string stars will form on every pentagon if you loop it right.

They're not called Platonic for nothing, he talks about them at length, his model or symbol for the cosmos is a dodecahedron, corresponded to quintessence, the element of the heavens. A bronze dodeca would give followers of Plato (no small group) the chance to explore this lovely/mighty form.

Thanks so much for this series, for the 9-month Great Pyramid one especially.

Sources:
2:28 Precursors!
3:46
5:05
6:02 Context of finds
7:00 feltburg Germany, yellow wax- beeswax?
8:30 Histogram of window diameters
14:44

Excellent analysis as always. Your clear delineation between evidence, logical analysis, and conclusions is very refreshing compared to many others in this area, especially those with a personal theory they seek to prove. I had been recently getting annoyed with the state of thinking on Roman dodecahedrons, so thanks!

Interesting.
Thanks for informative video.

Great video!