The Romans left over a hundred mysterious bronze dodecahedra and not a single word about what they were for. They have been called rangefinders, calendars, candlesticks and even tools for knitting gloves.
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More amazing facts
- 132 · 138 In 138 Zhang Heng's seismoscope in Luoyang signalled an earthquake that nobody had felt.
- 160 · 1543 For nearly 1,400 years doctors learned human anatomy from descriptions of monkeys.
- 165 · 166 In 166, men claiming to be envoys of the ruler of Rome — probably Marcus Aurelius — reached China.
- 200 · 550 Nobody knows the real name of Teotihuacan, the largest city of the ancient Americas. 'Place where the gods were born' is the Aztec name, given centuries after its fall; the Maya called it Puh, 'Place of Reeds'.
- 200 · 1938 The 'ancient battery' from Iraq most likely held scrolls.
- 232 · 1280 The colossal Taupō eruption of around 232 struck a New Zealand with no people at all: Polynesians would arrive more than a thousand years later.