• Ziglin (they/them)@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Looks like a githyanki artifact used to protect from illithid.

    BG3 spoiler

    There’s definitely nobody trapped in there, it’s all completely fine with no ethical considerations whatsoever.

  • eyes@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Always love seeing these come up and everyone confidently stating that it’s been solved. Everything from a knitting tool (highly unlikely as the Romans didn’t knit) to a dice. The truth is we just don’t know and likely never will unless a new source .

    Personally I’m convinced by the theory that they’re probably a metalworkers portfolio piece used to demonstrate the creators skill, either to potential customers or as a test to join a guild.

  • Slovene@feddit.nl
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    17 hours ago

    What if it’s a die for an ancient version of D&D? Labyrinths & Minotaurs. Or that thing you put treats in and then your dog rolls it around and gets a biccy every so often.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    21 hours ago

    I just assume it’s a random doodad. Like a desk decoration or something. Why wouldn’t ancient people have had dumb bullshit that served no purpose other than it’s aesthetic value just like we do now?

    • Pope-King Joe@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      This is why I couldn’t have a time machine. I’d go back in time and fuck with people. Leave a modern day Bic pen deep in a cave in New Zealand, or a randomly shaped object with no clear use made from something like titanium in a forest in the middle of Brazil.

    • threethan@reddthat.com
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      8 hours ago

      This is, by far, the most compelling theory I’ve seen.

      Given that those things were so common, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the other uses people have theorized could have happened too.

      • alcibiades@lemm.ee
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        22 hours ago

        Ehh idk about this take. I agree with the article that there are some commercial historical mediums like the History Channel that interpret the past in an absurd/almost malicious way. However modern archaeology does a really good job of finding out how objects from the past were used and how people interacted with their environment. A toilet is not really gonna be up for debate as for what its use was. Historical text, fecal remains, toilets looking pretty similar for the past thousand years, is gonna tell you it’s a toilet.

        The notion of our interpretation of the past being completely flawed is kinda true if it was like the 1950s and we were talking about non-western cultures from a western perspective.

          • alcibiades@lemm.ee
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            21 hours ago

            ion know why you saying “again” like you made a big point of it being a children’s book (you didn’t). I’m just saying I don’t like media like this. It feels like they’re delegitimizing research that is already brushed off by society as not useful compared to something in a stem field.

            We can have different opinions lol

            • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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              13 hours ago

              It’s fiction? I think you need to take a second to actually read the link provided because it’s very clear this is for children and your response to it is silly.

              • alcibiades@lemm.ee
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                8 hours ago

                Broski no need to get so pressed. What do you think fiction is? How would a young, impressionable audience, interpret this work?

                Works of fiction don’t exist in a vacuum. They are directly inspired and informed from the world we live in. In a similar vain, the impact of fiction does not exist in a vacuum. You don’t read a book and come away with no thoughts related to it. You don’t just throw away knowledge like that. If anything fiction works directed at children have an outsized impact on how we perceive the world compared to the space they occupy in literature.

                • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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                  8 hours ago

                  Im not your bro. You literally are complaining about a fiction book that most people read at the age of nine to twelve. It’s not having the impact that you think it does. You are worrying about nothing likely because you don’t have kids.

                  I read a book at the same age that suggested we could live on Mars and there was a whole culture on the planet yet I don’t believe that either. Is that because at 9 I understood what fiction is?

      • dalekcaan@lemm.ee
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        24 hours ago

        I remember reading a book as a kid, I can’t remember if it was this or maybe inspired by this, but adapted for kids (iirc the art style was more cartoony and comedic) where archeologists unearth a motel called the Toot and C’mon.

        Edit: after a bit of searching I think it was this book. Unlocked some memories I didn’t realize I had.

      • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
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        1 day ago

        I can’t remember if it’s an official Asimov book or not, but one of the Foundation books set far beyond even the main series has an archaeological mission finding thousands of ceremonial hard white ceramic bowl-funnels and speculating on their significance to these incomprehensibly ancient peoples.

        • Amon@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          thousands

          There’s probably millions even if you account for the fact that most would have been destroyed