Gavin Smith presenting his investigations

The club’s first lecture for 2023 was presented by Gavin Smith, who spoke on the topic, “Troubleshooting Ancient Roman Dodecahedrons”.

Most of us know that a dodecahedron is a three-dimensional shape having twelve faces, each of which is usually a pentagon.

But, did you know that many mysterious bronze dodecahedrons, dating back to the Roman age, have been dug up all across Europe? These handcrafted objects are beautiful, but their purpose is still a matter of some debate.

Gavin’s first explored what makes an explanation “good” or “bad”, then experimentally tested various proposed uses for these “Roman Dodecahedrons”.

Featuring a ton of experimental archaeology, involving Arduinos, precision lasers, woodworking and string, Gavin presented his own new explanation, and showed how it both explains the observed data and predicts the properties of one particularly unusual specimen that was dug up.

Unfortunately, because Gavin has not yet formally published his findings, we were unable to record his lecture for VK2MB-TV, but we are told that he intends to record a video with Dave Jones of EEVblog some time in the future.

Comments from members who attended:

“A fabulous lecture about Roman Dodecahedrons last night, very cerebral. Thanks Gavin, Mal and lecture team, Google them if you missed the lecture and give them some thought, my head is still spinning a bit.👍” – Russell VK2BYN

“Boy – what a really  great lecture! As Russ says an absolutely intriguing subject, Gavin’s completely inspirational intellectual horsepower thrown at it the quandary, his deep and thorough research, his development of the LIDAR tool and randomisation to create a double blind range test, his establishment of the negative hypothesis, his mastery of the subject and his attention-drawing, informative presentation style. All in all, simply brilliant!” – Tim VK2BT