Hi,
On 13-5-2011 19:03, francis wrote:
Harry, they appear to be an intentional variation on smooth spheres
see images http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carved_Stone_Balls mostly
with 6 knobs each.
As usual Wikipedia is clueless again.
The items at the Wikipedia page look very much like so-called
platonic-shapes. (tetrahedron and hexahedron)
See also an interesting theory about the use of "more recent" (probably
used from the first up to and including the fourth century)
platonic-shapes (dodecahedron and the icosahedron) at
http://www.dodecaeder.nl/en/home
If you look at the Dutch pages under media there is also an interesting
(Dutch) video (10 min) describing the use of the dodecahedron and the
icosahedron.
The presenter suggests they were used as a dedicated calender for
agriculture.
B.t.w. the original dodecahedron and the icosahedron used for this
demonstration can be viewed in the Rijksmuseum of archaeology in Leiden.
Kind regards,
MoB
