[LouisSayers]

It's a Roman mailbox.

Paper was rolled into scrolls, and that's why you find them everywhere, because just like today people communicated with one another.

If you need to leave a message you write it on a scroll and insert in a hole. You could have different sized holes for different sized messages / documents.

You could basically leave the mailbox on your desk and have people put messages there for you to read (or the other way around)

The bits on the corners simply keep it a bit off of the surface - important incase of any moisture, spills etc.

[ozgung]

Nice try. This is similar to the candleholder hypothesis, and the answer is probably no. There are versions that have tiny holes and they cannot hold a scroll or a candle. Also, some experts say they are not actually from Romans although the popular name is Roman Dodecahedron.

[sandworm101]

As opposed to hole in a block of wood? Given these were metal and hard to craft, that would be like leaving a thousand-dollar pencil holder on one's desk all day.

[forgotoldacc]

Wood stuff from the era is basically all disintegrated. Metal lasts a long time.

And there are people on this planet with solid gold pens in their pocket. People today love flaunting their wealth, and so did people 2000 years ago.

[meindnoch]

>Wood stuff from the era is basically all disintegrated.

False.

>Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old, perfectly preserved wooden toilet seat at a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-28956328

[forgotoldacc]

>Dr Birley said many examples of stone and marble toilet benches existed from across the Roman Empire, but this is believed to be the only surviving wooden seat.

So the article you link says, in colloquial English terms, that stone and marble toilets from the period are pretty common but wooden toilet seats are basically all disintegrated. Only one (1) wooden seat is known to remain.

[detaro]

That some individual artifacts in lucky conditions have survived does not invalidate the statement that most don't

[JohnHaugeland]

having been there does. there is no shortage of old wood and pottery

believe fewer unevidenced claims

[ted_bunny]

Unevidenced...?

[gadders]

A bit like Roman Post-It Notes? "Aulus - the lads are going for a jug of Falernian after work. Meet us at the Forum."

[IsTom]

They are not found everywhere, they're concentrated in whereabouts of today's France and Britain.