I wonder if the object (Mysterious Roman dodecahedron to go on display in Lincoln, 29 April) could be some kind of puzzle (quite apart from being a puzzle to archaeologists). Unless some Roman puzzle book survived, it seems unlikely that a puzzle object would crop up in Roman literature. It is small enough to be held in the hand, and possibly the puzzle was to wrap a string around each protuberance and to go into or come out of one of the holes, without going in or out twice?
Tom Wilson
Professor emeritus, University of Sheffield
• The dodecahedron could well be the ancient equivalent of a dice: with the same purpose as our modern six-sided dice cube – to play games or use for gambling. In the ancient case, it may well have been based on the Egyptian 12-based counting system, with different-sized holes representing larger and smaller numbers.
Pat Johnson
Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
• All I could think of when I saw the photo of the Roman dodecahedron was the shape-sorter toy that my children had in the 70s.
Joan Foster
Hunston, West Sussex
• I believe that the Roman dodecahedron is an early prototype for a Thames Water waste pipe connector, subsequently rejected on grounds of costs to shareholder dividends and the fact that it actually worked.
Tom Brown
Gore End, Hampshire
• We may not know what the Roman dodecahedron was used for back then, but seems to me it would be great as a holder for 35mm film canisters.
Roshi Sail
Avening, Gloucestershire
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